


I Will Protect You

by DaisyTail



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alkarian Pidge (Voltron), Altean Lance (Voltron), Balmeran Hunk (Voltron), Bottom Lance (Voltron), Eventual Smut, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff, Galra Keith (Voltron), Galras go into heat, Hot Spring Stuff, Lance is a flirt, Lance silk dances, M/M, Naked Cuddling, Prince Lance (Voltron), Soulmates, The Galras are good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-01-27 01:12:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 41,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12570368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaisyTail/pseuds/DaisyTail
Summary: Lance is the prince of Altea and his parents are worried that all his flirting will get him in trouble so they hire a bodyguard for him





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a short prologue, chapters will be longer in the future, I promise!

The King and Queen of Altea sighed as they watched their son flirting with yet another group of girls. 

“That boy is going to get himself in trouble. This is a diplomatic event of the utmost importance! What if he does something that will hurt our planet just because he is playing around.” The King pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed deeply. 

“Oh, don’t worry about him, he knows his boundaries,” The Queen lowered her voice, “or at least I hope he does.” She linked her arm around her husband’s and they made their way over to the leader of an allied planet. As they approached they noticed that there was a younger boy with him.

“Hello, it’s so lovely to have you at this banquet. How is the Emperor of the Galras doing today?” The Altean King chuckled and glanced at the younger, albeit taller, boy beside the King. 

“I’m doing great, Cyril. How are you? And you Siena.” The Emperor placed a kiss to the queen’s hand and she tried to conceal her blush. 

“We are doing fine, Thace. Although our son is rather concerning us. All of his...flirting.” Cyril gently shook his head and looked back up. “If you don’t mind my asking, who is this young man?”

“Oh, my deepest apologies, this is my son Keith. Keith these are the rulers of Altea, King Cyril and Queen Siena.” Thace gestured to the two as they were introduced and Keith gave a bow. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, I am Keith, the-“ Keith seemed to grit his teeth, “-prince, of the Galran Empire.” Thace looked at Keith in a way that seemed to express something that the Alteans didn’t quite understand. 

“Well, you said Prince Lance is acting up?” Thace quickly changed the subject, but looked at the Alteans with concern.

“Oh yes, we are thinking of hiring a bodyguard, of sorts, to make sure he doesn’t do something foolish.” Cyril looked at his wife, who was looking rather ticked off at the moment. 

“I have an idea, although I’m not sure if you’ll like it but, as I’m sure you’re aware, Garlans make very good bodyguards,” Thace subtly looked at his son before he said his next words. “And if you’re willing I have the perfect Galra in mind for the job.” Thace smiled and, to his surprise, so did the Alteans. 

“I think this will be an excellent plan, Thace, why don’t we talk about it more after the banquet.” Siena smiled at the Emperor, than at her husband. 

Keith didn’t like the way they were talking.


	2. Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (The Galran Royal Guard uniform is the BoM uniform

“And then my cousin Allura-“ 

Lance and the girls he was flirting with quickly turned toward the door that had been flung open. He and some Altean servant girls had been lounging around in the courtyard and Lance had been telling them stories (that he may or may not have made himself look better in). 

“Lance come with me now,” Cyril, Lance’s father boomed. “You all should get back to work too, I’m sorry my son was bothering you.” The king nodded respectfully at his servants and grabbed his son by the arm, forcefully dragging him out of the courtyard before he could do anything more then wave goodbye. 

“Father, did I do something for you to drag me away? I was having such a nice talk with those girls. They loved my stories.” Lance crossed his arms, now that his father had freed the one he had grabbed. 

“We need you to meet someone. Someone very important for your future,” Lance’s father lowered his voice so that his son could not hear him, “and the well-being of the kingdom.” The pair walked swiftly toward the more private room in the castle, that was used for smaller meeting between the royal family and other diplomats. 

Due to the king’s words, Lance was buzzing with excitement to the point that he was basically skipping, but he knew he had to keep a cool composure. After all, Lance thought that surely the person who was “important for his future” was going to be his future spouse. Who else would be important for Lance’s future? Not anyone he could think of. 

“Lance, no matter what we tell you in this room you must keep your composure. Do you understand me?” Lance’s father sternly looked at the bubbly prince, his hand about to push open the door.

“Yes father. I understand.” Lance took his excitement down a few notches and took some deep breaths. He stood up straight and put on the most charming smile he could conjure up as his father opened the door to the smaller room where his mother was, talking to two...men? More like a man and a younger boy. He seemed to be around Lance’s age. 

“Oh good, you’ve found him.” Seina clasped her hands together and smiled. “Lance, darling, your father and I would like for you to meet someone.” Lance walked over and bowed respectfully, slightly confused about the situation, seeing as how he thought he’d be meeting the person he would one day marry. 

“Hello, I am Lance, prince of Altea. It is a pleasure to meet you.” Lance regained his charming smile as he glanced at both the older and younger males in front of him. 

“Oh, the pleasure is ours young man. I am Thace, Emperor of the Galra, and this is my son, Keith.” Keith lowered his head respectfully but Lance thought he saw the prince roll his eyes. 

Lance looked at his mother and father, as well as the emperor and his son, in a quizzical manner. Then, as if she could read his thoughts, his mother started to speak. 

“Well, let us sit first.” Seina and all the others moved towards a table and sat themselves around it. Seina fiddled her thumbs a little bit then continued talking. “Alright. Lance you tend to...well- interact, with the ladies of the kingdom, and other kingdoms, quite frivolously. And your father and I decided that it’d be best if we got someone to watch over you. So that you wouldn’t do something that you might regret, it that could put our kingdom in a bad place.” Lance’s jaw was on the floor and his eyes wide as he stared at his mother in absolute disbelief. 

“We were discussing the topic with Thace, who is a rather close friend of mine and your mother’s, and he offered his son to take the job. Not only to protect you but to also build a good relationship between you two, since you will both rule one day.” Lance’s father explained to his son. 

The room was silent, Lance’s parents waiting for their son to speak, Keith being moody in his chair, Thace staring disapprovingly at his son, and Lance trying to process what was happening. After a few minutes Lance broke the silence. 

“So,” he brushed his hair back, “So, you don’t want me talking with girls, in case I mess something up or say something bad, so you got that guy to babysit me?” Lance glanced at his newly appointed guard, fully decked out in the Galran Royal Guard’s uniform, then back to his parents. 

“Yes, but don’t worry, it’s just temporary. We won’t bar you from socializing at diplomatic events but even then Keith will be keeping you in check.” Cyril looked at his wife after his words did nothing to change his son’s reaction. 

“Well why don’t we let the boys get to know each other, and we can come back in a varga or so?” Thace suggested. 

“Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea!” Seina said, standing up and ushering the two men out of the room, leaving the boys behind. 

Silence. It was just silence for what felt like an eternity. It was silence until Lance couldn’t stand it anymore. 

“So, how old are you? I’m turning 21 soon.” Lance waited patiently for the other boy’s reply. 

“22.” The Galran Prince stated curtly, much to Lance’s surprise. 

“Ok... well even if we both don’t want to be in this situation we’re stuck, so we should at least get to know each other a little bit. Right? I’ll go first, ok?” Lance didn’t see any sign of being interrupted so he went on. “I’m Lance, I’m the only prince of Altea, I have a Balmeran friend named Hunk and an Alkarian friend named Pidge. They both come to visit occasionally since my parents adore them. Ummm I’ve never actually been in a relationship before because I’m looking for the one who is right for me who is right for me. Your turn.” Lance sat back and crossed his legs, waiting for Keith to talk. 

“I’m Keith,” he sighed, “I don’t want to be here. Um my best friend, well my only friend, is Shiro. He’s the commander-in-chief of the royal guard. He’s basically my brother. It’s only me and my dad so I don’t want to stay here, but he has Ulaz so I think he’ll be alright.” Keith physically relaxed a little bit and Lance took the opportunity to ask more questions. 

“Who’s Ulaz?”

“Ulaz is my dad’s best friend but they’re definitely together and everyone knows it. Everyone is really happy that my dad has him though since he’s actually happy with someone since my mom passed away.” Keith’s lips twitched slightly and Lance got up and moved to the seat next to him. 

“I’m sorry Keith.” Lance touched Keith’s shoulder but the boy flinched and got up.

“Damn, so that’s how it’s going to be?” Lance rolled his eyes and walked off to the other side of the room. “Quiznack.” He muttered. 

To the boys’ parent’s disappointment, they found them sulking in opposite corners of the room, but they had already planned for Keith’s stay. They realized that the boys would have to get along with each other eventually, so they decided to just leave it. 

“Alright. Keith you are staying in the room next to Lance’s. All of your stuff is already there and if you need anything please ask one of the castle’s staff.” Seina smiled and walked over to Keith. “One of the staff is waiting to show you to your room. They’ll come get you when dinner is ready as well. I hope you enjoy your stay with us, Keith.” The queen ushered the Galran boy out of the room. 

“Well it is my time to leave. Thank you for your hospitality. I will come to visit soon.” Thace nodded at Cyril and Seina gave him a hug, then he departed. 

“Lance you better be friendly to Keith. If this is going to work, you’ll need to build a strong bond with him.” Cyril said. Lance nodded and excused himself, saying he was tired, and set off towards his room. 

Lance decided to take his father’s advice. Oh, he’d be friendly all right.


	3. “Friendly”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is a little shit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to cover some things before hand:
> 
> 1)Things in italics are what Lance or Keith (whoever the chapter is centered around) is thinking
> 
> 2) Lance’s casual clothing looks like this and the pants are a darker blue https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d9/1b/c7/d91bc7ae9120e40ea70617b2aa5c0f09.png

Lance woke up to the sound of knocking at his door. 

“Breakfast is ready your highness.” An unfamiliar voice called out loudly. 

Lance tore open his bed curtains and slid out of his bed, grabbing for his silk blue robe and sliding into it. The prince walked over to his adjoining bathroom and stood in front of the large mirror and sink. Lance turned on the water and washed off the mud mask he had put on the night before, gently dabbing his face with a towel until it was completely dry. His hair was still straight, which he was thankful for, so he could quickly go to the breakfast awaiting him (after moisturizing of course). 

“Your highness, are you alright?” The voice called again, banging on the door this time. 

Holy quiznack can you not wait five fucking minutes?

Lance pulled on his slippers and walked over to the door, unlocking it and watching it slide open. 

He was taken aback as the much taller Galran prince was holding up a fist, about to knock again. He lowered it and took a step to the side. 

“You could have hurried up a bit you know.” He muttered, but Lance heard it. 

“Sorry, Keith, but I have a routine I need to follow before going out into the public. I can’t look anything less then stunning for the people of the castle.” Lance smiled at his guard and started heading towards the dining hall. Keith rolled his eyes and followed behind the prince. 

“Good morning Lance,” Siena smiled and gave her son a kiss on the cheek before he went to sit down. “Good morning Keith.” 

“Good morning Queen Siena, King Cyril.” Keith nodded respectively and stood to the side while the Alteans were served breakfast. 

“Oh, Keith, please join us.” Cyril waved the boy over in a way that meant no arguing. 

“Thank you your majesty.” Keith said and sat down next to Lance, who wasn’t happy but didn’t show it. 

“How did you sleep last night? Was the room to your liking?” Siena asked. 

“Yes, and it was fine, thank you.”

“If you never need anything, just let one of the servants know, they’ll help you right away.”

“Thank you.” Keith stared at the strange food being served to him. He only refused the fluorescent green goop that the royal family seemed to be eating up happily. He wasn’t familiar with this food and he wasn’t sure if he liked the look of it either. 

Cyril asked questions about how the Empire was and what Keith’s studies were like, while also talking about Lance’s studies and how he almost never paid enough attention. Siena asked Keith questions about his father and Shiro and himself of course. Lance grumpily shoveled his food in his mouth throughout both conversations, since his parents were embarrassing him greatly. 

“I’m finished. May I be excused, please?” Lance smiled at his mother. She nodded and he folded his napkin, scooted his chair out, and left the room. He headed straight for his room so that he could prepare for the day. But first he had something to do. 

Lance traded his silk robe for a bath robe and grabbed his hair products and soap. The only lessons he had today were etiquette and singing so he decided to treat himself to a morning bath in the private hot springs. 

As he was on his way out with everything in hand, he ran into Keith. 

“I was told to stick with you until your lessons this afternoon,” Keith looked at the bottles of product and small towel in Lance’s hands. “What are those for?”

“Oh you know, stuff.” Lance trailed off, thinking of a plan to get rid of the furry, purple nuisance. Keith cocked an eyebrow and Lance ran a hand through his hair. 

“Would you mind grabbing a book from the library for me? I promise I’ll stay right here. It’s the etiquette book and I just want to check over it before my lesson.” Lance plastered a fake smile on his face and Keith cautiously started to walk away. 

Lance bolted. Keith yelled and followed suit. He may be taller and faster, but Lance knew the castle like the back of his hand. 

After a very short burst of running Lance quickly backed into a small closet and watched Keith run past. Once he knew he was gone he quickly walked the other direction towards the hot spring. 

~

Lance sighed in relief as he walked out of the mildly hidden tunnel into the fresh open air, surrounded by beautiful trees and plant life. In the middle was a large, natural pool of hot water. 

“He should be fine for a while. He’s antisocial so he won’t ask anyone unless he’s completely given up.” Lance said to himself as he completely undressed, folding the robe and towel and setting them down next to the spring and his hair products and soap. 

He stepped into the hot springs and sighed in relief, going into the water until it was around his waist. He sat on the naturally formed rock ledge scooping the water onto his shoulders, relishing in the contrast of the hot water and cool air. He closed his eyes and rested his head against the edge of the pool. He grabbed his shampoo after a few moments and massaged some into his hair. He left it in, lathering soap onto his body, then rinsed it all of at once with the hot water. 

Thank god Keith isn’t here to ruin this great moment. 

Lance at that moment, ironically, heard his name being called and footsteps echoing out of the tunnel. 

“I spoke to soon.” He whispered and went into the water until it was up to his chin and he was facing the opposite way of the tunnel entrance. 

“Your highness!” Keith was panting and Lance knew he was staring daggers at the back of his head.

“I can’t guard you if you run away from me, your highness,” Keith said with a steady voice. Lance ignored him. 

“Please get out of there! We have to go back to the castle!” Keith had raised his voice but Lance didn’t mind at all. 

Lance remembered his father’s words, that he had to be friendly and build a strong bond with Keith. He had an idea. 

“Ok, sure,” Lance slowly stood up and started turning, “but you’ll have to help me get dressed first.” Lance put on a flirty smile. 

Keith’s face turned a darker shade of purple and his ears went back a little. 

Success

Lance waded towards Keith, keeping his smile on his face, and he held out his hand. Keith looked frantically at Lance and then around the ground, finally catching sight of the dark blue bath robe. He grabbed it and shoved it at the prince quickly turning his back so that he could hide his blush. 

Lance smirked once Keith’s back was turned and got out of the hot spring, putting on the bath robe and tying it. 

He also slipped on his sandals and grabbed the small towel, rubbing his wet hair with it briefly and then placing it around his neck. 

“Could you grab the other stuff? Thanks.” Lance started toward the tunnel and heard Keith grab his hair product and soap. He was so proud that he could make Keith so flustered. 

~

“I’ll leave you to finish getting ready and then I’ll take you to your etiquette lesson.” Keith told Lance, not flustered anymore but also not looking him in the eye. 

“Alrighty.” Lance walked into his bedroom and locked it. He got dressed into his casual clothes, which weren’t even casual in his opinion since it was still a cape overtop of traditional royal Altean men’s wear. 

Once he was completely ready he walked out and set off towards his etiquette lesson. 

Oh no why did I forget to straighten it?

Lance frowned as he felt the curls forming on top of his head. He didn’t like to wear his hair natural very often, but it was just two lessons, so he could deal with it. 

Luckily, his lessons went smoothly. Except for the three fights with Keith in between and after his singing and etiquette lessons, but what would one expect? The boys didn’t get along very well so they were bound to get in many arguments. 

Lance ran off a second time, this time to sneak a dessert from the kitchen but Keith found him even faster. 

Lance didn’t think this thing would work out at all. He couldn’t get away from Keith? How was he supposed to live peacefully now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I’ve been gone for so long!! I’m going to try to update weekly from now on, so please look forward to that and tell me what you think of this chapter in the comments :)
> 
> ~  
> This is what Lance’s bed looks like but the curtains aren’t tied up https://i.pinimg.com/736x/8b/b7/b5/8bb7b51cc7cc35cedd244961cf54761a--bed-canopy-diy-canopy-bed-ideas.jpg


	4. Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk and Pidge come to visit. Keith doesn’t know what to do

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is such a short chapter! I got super tired in the middle and I had to finish it tonight or I wouldn’t get it done for a while. Hope you still enjoy <3

*clunk*

What the hell was that

Lance was not a morning person and waking up to a loud think was not amazing for anyone, especially whoever made that noise. 

The prince scanned the room gently rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and quickly grabbed his robe covering his nearly naked body before stepping out of bed (he was wearing boxers but that was it). 

“Hello?” Lance called groggily out into the dark space of his room. He was filled with a feeling of dread as he saw something standing next to his balcony window, moving ever so slightly. 

Lance screamed bloody murder and tried running out of his room, but the door wouldn’t slide open. He felt someone touch his shoulder. 

“Who knew a plant could scare you so much.” A girl’s voice whispered and Lance whipped around. 

“WHAT THE ACTUAL QUIZNACK PIDGE?” Lance yelled as his friend laughed hysterically. The lights flicked on and the prince also saw his Balmeran friend, Hunk snickering right behind Pidge. 

“I told you not to use your plant magic to mess with me.” Lance pushed his friends shoulder playfully and his Alkarian friend stuck out her tongue. 

“Sorry man, it was her idea.” Hunk gave Lance one of his famous hugs and Lance suddenly forgot about the pure horror he just experienced. 

“Your highness are you ok?” Keith rushed in, blade in hand, but stopped abruptly as he saw the three standing around chatting with smiles on their face, who were now looking at him. 

“Oh,” Lance looked at his best friends and turned back to Keith. “This is Keith, my parents hired him to keep me from flirting with girls but he sticks to me like glue so he’s basically a babysitter.” The Balmeran and Alkarian nodded in respect. 

“I heard you scream, so I just assumed...” Keith trailed off and put away his weapon, his ears folding back slightly. 

“Lance you hurt his feelings,” Hunk said, walking over to Keith. “I’m Hunk, that’s Pidge. Pidge loves to scare the crap out of Lance, sorry we scared you too.” Hunk smiled and Keith’s ears perked up a little. 

“I’m Keith, I’m the prince of the Galran Empire, but my father sent me to form a bond with Prince Lance so that our kingdoms can have a strong alliance when we take our thrones.” Keith introduced himself. 

As Hunk, Pidge, and Keith continued to introduce each other, Lance realized something. Hunk was huge, as Balmerans tended to be and even he was about half a foot smaller than Keith. Lance thought that he must look like an ant next to his bodyguard. 

Better than Pidge. She looks like a baby

Lance chuckled at his thought and shook his head. 

“Alright, everybody out. I have to get dressed.” Lance shooed the three out of his room and locked the door after it slid closed. 

~

“Who cares if we see him get dressed?” Pidge muttered, leaning against the side of the wall. “We’re going to have to wait here for a hell of a long time now and I want to talk to him about stuff.”

“Pidge you know about the markings.” Hunk muttered and Pidge rolled her eyes. 

“Markings?” Keith asked quietly. 

“The royal line of Alteans have special markings on their bodies, that develop around the time when they turn 15, that match the color of their face markings. They’re very sacred, meaning that Alteans will only show them to the person who they will be with for their entire life. It’s super embarrassing to show them to other people, even if those people are your relatives or close friends. That’s the reason for their clothes covering the majority of their body. Even someone as shameless as Lance would become bashful if someone else saw them.” Pidge explained. 

Keith’s face lit up, remembering how he ran into the hot springs and caught a glimpse of Lance’s markings before he averted his eyes and handed him his robe. If he knew how important they were he would have waited for him to finish. 

“I’m done you guys. Let’s go eat.” Lance trotted along to the dining hall where his parents were waiting for him and his friends. 

“Pidge, Hunk! How are you darlings?” Siena gave both of them huge hugs and kisses on their cheeks. 

“Hello you two! It’s great to see you. Pidge, was that a new record for loudest scream?” Cyril said, hugging Lance’s friends as well. 

“I think it was.” Pidge and Cyril snickered and Lance glared at both of them. Only Pidge could bring out the King’s prankster personality that was lost with is youth. 

Everyone sat down and breakfast was served. The four younger ones ate quickly and excused themselves. The trio was ready for a day of messing around and catching up on each other’s lives and Keith was less ready to follow them around all day. He was pleasantly surprised, however, when he was included in conversations and activities, to the annoyance of Lance. 

Keith didn’t join in on much at all and didn’t share anything about his life, but he considered it a fun day. It was nice being around energetic people even though it was pretty draining. Keith was happy that Hunk and Pidge would be around for a few more days, he hoped to try and become at least acquaintances with one of them. 

~

By the end of the week, Pidge and Hunk’s time to leave had come. Keith had become pretty decently acquainted with both of them and was slightly sad to be alone with just Lance again. 

Keith watched as the trio gave each other hugs goodbye, making sure that they’d keep in contact with each other during the time they’d be separated. 

After they left the mood almost. immediately switched. Neither Lance nor Keith wanted to deal with each other. It would be a long journey of bonding without Hunk and Pidge (especially Hunk) to guide them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I totally forgot about updating, I am so sorry! I’ve been looking forward to my birthday (it was the 14th which is technically today still) so I haven’t had updates for most on my mind. I’m 15 now and I can start driver’s ed!  
>  Anyways, hope you like the chapter and let me know what you think. Love you all so much <3


	5. Shiro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro, Ulaz, And Thace come to visit

“Your Highness!” Keith pounded on the door. 

Oh my god. It’s the ass crack of dawn what does he want?

“Coming.” Lance called groggily, tying his robe tight and slipping on his blue lion slippers. He has once again been smart and straightened his curls the night before. He was tired of having to straighten his hair every night and longed for the times where he could relax and do it in the morning without being dragged out of his bed super early. 

“What can I do for you, Keith,” Lance leaned against his doorframe after he unlocked it.” Also please drop the “Your Highness” stuff. I tried getting used to it, but I can’t. Lance is fine.” 

“Your parents called for you to come and meet some of my people. They would like you to wear formal clothes, but not banquet clothes?” Keith sounded confused about what that meant. Lance assumed he only had his uniform, banquet clothes, and sleepwear. Maybe casual clothes, but it probably wasn’t anywhere near the amount of clothes Lance had for every occasion ever imaginable. 

“Got it. I’ll be out soon.” Lance turned and locked his door again, watching it slide closed before walking over to his vast closet filled with labeled chests of clothes. 

“Formal but not banquet...” Lance repeated the sentence to himself over and over before his eyes landed on a chest with the label ‘Informal Meetings’ . He looked inside and slipped into the clothes. Pulling up his “fancy boots” (that’s what Lance called them), he joined Keith, patiently waiting outside for him. 

Lance noticed that Keith looked kind of excited. Interesting. Keith was never excited about anything. 

The two young men walked side by side until they reached the room that was used for private meetings. 

“Oh Lance, come sit.” Siena called as he entered the room. 

“Thace, you already know Lance of course,” Cyril said. “Ulaz, Shiro, this is our son Lance. Lance these two gentlemen are Ulaz, Thace’s advisor, and Shiro, a high-ranking Galran soldier.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Lance, Prince of Altea.” Lance gave a bow and smiled at the two new guests. 

“The pleasure is ours Your Higness.” Ulaz said as bowed his head in return. 

“Yes, the pleasure is ours.” The soldier, Shiro, bowed as well. 

“Sit down Keith, you are a part of this conversation too.” Seina told the young Galran. Keith obliged and quickly went to sit next to Shiro, smoking at the him when he sat down. 

“Alright. Let’s get down to the reason for our visit.” Thace told the group. “Prince Lance, throughout Keith’s work as your guard he will need to take leaves of absence occasionally. We’ve come today to introduce you to Shiro, who will be taking Keith’s place during the absences I’ve mentioned.” Lance looked at Keith who looked flushed and had his head tilted at the ground. 

“Alright...is there any specific reason?” Lance asked. 

“It is up to Keith to tell you that, darling.” Siena mumbled towards her son. Lance was still confused though. 

“I look forward to working with you in the future, Your Highness.” Shiro bowed his head towards Lance.

“The same goes for me.” Lance was respectful outwardly. However, inwardly, he did not want to be babysat by another Galra. He also didn’t want to keep hearing ‘Your Highness’ every waking moment. He preferred being called Lance, but whatever. 

“Lance, Keith, why don’t you show Shiro around the castle?” Cyril said.  
The three stood up and left the others in the room to talk amongst themselves. 

Once the doors closed Keith started talking up a storm, taking Lance by surprise. 

“Shiro, I missed you so much. I can’t believe dad and Ulaz actually brought you to stand in. That means I can see you kind of often.”

“I missed you too, Keith.” Shiro ruffled Keith’s hair, causing him to smile in return. 

Lance was confused by this new side of Keith. Where had this smiley, chatterbox come from? What happened to emo Keith? Whatever, Lance wouldn’t question it. 

“So, these are the main rooms. This one is mine, that one over there is Keith’s. Yours will be across from his when you’re staying here.” Lance gestured down the shirt hallway of doors, then turning to go somewhere else. 

“I don’t really want to be across from his room while I’m staying here but whatever.” Shiro mumbles and Keith elbowed him. 

“Did you say something?” Lance asked, turning around. 

“Nope.” Keith answered for Shiro. 

Lance raised a brow, but continued with the tour. 

~

As Lance finished explaining the last part of the castle to Shiro, he realized that the older Galra wasn’t paying much attention. 

Shiro was grabbing Keith’s shoulders, looking slightly worried. Shiro glanced at the puzzled Lance, then back at Keith, hoisting him up on his back. 

“I’m so sorry Your Highness, I have to bring Keith to his room, thank you so much for the tour.” Shiro smiled and took off. 

“What the quiznack?” Lance muttered, shrugging it off and walking back towards the area where the adults were. 

As he walked past the hallway with all the rooms, he smelled a sweet but slightly bitter scent. Lance was drawn to it, but he was kind of scared of what it could be. Some of the servants brought weird plants into the castle that were dangerous and Lance didn’t want to lay in bed for a week because he decided to smell a weird ass plant. 

Shiro suddenly came out of Keith’s room, ears perking up when he saw Lance. 

“Wh-I- I thought you would be with the others by now.”

“I was on my way there...hey do you smell something? It’s kind of sweet but also bitter?” Lance asked. 

“Not at all.” Shiro said, glancing at the door to Keith’s room. 

“Oh. Ok, well i guess we’ll walk back together. Is Keith okay? Not that I really care about him or anything.” Lance rushed through the last part. 

“He’ll be okay. Looks like I’ll be working for you sooner than we thought.” Shiro smiled at Lance, glancing down at him. 

Lance smiled back at the much taller man than looked forward as Shiro opened the door. 

“Where’s Keith?” Ulaz asked. 

“He’s,” Shiro trailed off. “Not feeling well.” 

Everyone in the room perked up at that comment. Lance didn’t understand. 

“I thought there was still two weeks?” Thace seemed puzzled as he consulted with Ulaz. 

“It could just be the new environment.”

“But he’s been in new environments before and it’s never been this early.” 

Lance was really confused about what the two Galrans were whispering about, but decided to brush it off. 

“Well, we’re happy to welcome Shiro, although it is earlier than we had planned,” Siena said, turning to Shiro. “You already got Keith’s schedule, am I right?”

“Yes. I’ll take up his duties for the next week. Should I also arrange for people to stand guard for Keith?” Shiro asked. 

“Oh no, that won’t be necessary, but thank you.” Cyril said. 

“What’s going on with Keith?” Lance finally spoke up. 

“Oh, don’t worry about Keith, Prince Lance. He just has some...business to take care of for the week. He’ll be back to guarding you in no time.” Ulaz smiled at Lance, clearly hinting at him to drop the subject. 

Lance wasn’t fond of Keith or anything, if anything Keith annoyed the living daylights out of him, especially with the constant fights. However, anyone would be concerned if a person is suddenly out of commission for a week without a reason why. 

 

~

 

Lance was on his way to bed when, once again, he smelled the bittersweet scent. Shiro had already parted from the prince for the night, meaning Lance was free to explore his curiosity. Hopefully it wasn’t an evil plant. 

As Lance walked toward the scent, he felt a tingly sensation on his markings. 

What the hell is going on?

Lance got closer to the scent and an Altean guard stopped him. 

“Prince Lance, you should be in bed.”

“Sorry, I just smelled something weird, thought I’d see if it was another weird plant someone brought in.”

“Oh it’s probably just incense that Prince Keith is burning. Don’t mind it too much.”

“Do you know what he’s doing in there?” 

“I was just told he was busy and couldn’t be disturbed. Now, you should go to your room.” The guard looked at the other Altean guard behind him and guided Lance to his bedroom. 

“Goodnight, Prince Lance. Shiro will come get you in the morning. Have a good night.” The guard nodded and waited until Lance locked his door behind him. 

What was wrong with Keith? What was that incense? And why was Lance so drawn to it? Lance decided to ask Shiro in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it’s been so long! I keep forgetting to write, but if you’re still reading go thank you for sticking with me. Sorry for another “visiting people” chapter but I have absolutely no other ideas. Please enjoy, I love you all so much


	6. Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has a weird dream and talks to Shiro about it. There’s a lot of secrecy happening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found out that the italics I use to show when thoughts are being expressed DONT TRANSFER so if a thought is by itself without quotations then it’s an inner thought. Sorry for any confusion that might have caused!

Lance woke up naturally. Nobody banging on his door. 

Granted, the sun hasn’t risen yet and he wouldn’t be woken until about 3-4 vargas later. 

Lance wondered why he had woken up so early. He could still smell the scent that the guard had said was probably incense, but it was stronger now. Lance felt a prickly feeling in the markings that coiled around his body. His head felt fuzzy, but he pushed it off as being tired from waking up at a strange time. 

Lance wanted to follow the smell. It was sweet and bitter and smelled like his favorite corner of the castle, but also like his favorite food. It had another quality, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. He knew one thing for sure though, he was extremely drawn to it. 

 

Go to it. 

 

Lance wrapped his robe around his prickling marks, barely managing to tie it before exiting his room. 

He kept hearing something, someone’s voice. 

 

Go to it. Follow the scent. Go to it. 

 

He couldn’t do anything but listen to it. 

He stumbled down the hall, falling into more of a haze as he was surrounded by the intoxicating scent. Lance felt like he wasn’t even consciously moving anymore. He felt like his body was stumbling down the hall on its own, against his will. He felt powerless, but in the best way. 

It felt like an eternity, but Lance made it to the entrance of a room. A locked room. 

 

You have to get into the room. Get to the smell. 

 

Lance heard a scream, well, more like a kind of roar. 

A guard came running down the hall, shouting something unintelligible at Lance. 

 

~

 

Lance gasped for air as he heard a loud knock on his door. 

“It’s time for you to wake up, Your Highness.” Shiro called from outside the room’s door. 

“I’ll be there in a minute.” Lance yawned and slid out of his bed. His body felt as heavy as a rock, but he grabbed his robe and wrapped it tightly around himself. 

“Ok, coming!” Lance called as he walked towards his door. He unlocked his door and it slid open. 

“Good morni-“ Shiro pauses, concern quickly crossing his features. “Good morning. Are you alright Your Highness?” 

“Please, just Lance. And yes but I feel terrible. I had this weird dream and I’m exhausted. I really wish I didn’t have lessons today, I would go as low as to marry Prince Lotion if I could get extra sleep.” 

“A-are you talking about Prince Lotor? The Western Galran Prince?”

“Yeah. Prince Limpdick is the worst.” Lance clapped his hand over his mouth, realizing that he said that last bit aloud. 

“He’s not that bad. He’s actually quite pleasant.” Shiro said after he finished cracking up. 

Lance liked Shiro way better, he was way easier to talk to. 

“Hey, does Keith have like incense or something? It has this bittersweet smell to it?” Lance asked. 

“No. Glarans have sensitive senses of smell so we do not often, if ever, use perfumes or incense. Scented stuff is reserved for sacred rituals, mostly. Even those are earthy and very faint.” Shiro explained. Lance was puzzled about what the scent was. He decided it must’ve been a guard’s soap. 

“Well anyways, what was that strange dream you were talking about?” Shiro asked. 

“I was wandering down the hall where you and Keith are staying. It didn’t even feel like I was doing the walking, it was crazy weird. I felt like I had just drunk a ton of nunvill, in that I couldn’t think about anything but following this amazing smell,” Lance looked at Shiro. “That’s really weird right?”

Shiro nodded slowly. 

“Well, basically I got to this one door and all I could think about was getting inside that room. Then I heard this kind of scream, roar, thing? And a guard came running at me, yelling something. Then I woke up.” Lance finished reciting his dream. He was kind of curious as to why he remembered it in such detail, but it didn’t really matter. 

Shiro’s eyebrows were deeply furrowed, but Lance didn’t have time to voice his concern before they walked into the dining room. 

It was quieter than usual. 

“Shiro, come sit with us.” Cyril stated, although it was more of a demand, and he gave Lance his ‘keep away from us’ look. It wasn’t in a mean way, Lance remembered seeing it a lot during banquets when he was a lot younger. It meant that he shouldn’t hear the conversation. 

He sat down out of ear shot and quietly ate his breakfast. He tried desperately to catch at least a taste of the conversation. It didn’t work. 

Lance felt like a child again, but this time he couldn’t run to his cousin Allura and play with her. He was all alone while the ‘adults’ had their conversation, without him. 

“Lance, come here right now.” Cyril commanded. Lance stood up and walked over, obviously grumpy. 

Siena abruptly grabbed his cheeks in her hand and pulled his face closer. 

“M-mom?” Lance shouted in surprise. He watched his mother stare at him, at his markings below his eyes. He felt her pass her thumb gently across one of his markings and she let him go. 

“Lance, go to Kelia. You will be dancing silks at the banquet next month.” Siena said flatly. 

“There’s a banquet next month? Mom Kelia’s going to wreck me in that short a period of time!” Lance was in shock at the short notice celebration. 

“Go.” Cyril said. 

Lance rolled his eyes and went to his room to change. 

 

Kelia had been teaching Lance how to dance since he was practically a baby. Lance dreaded the ass-kicking practices he would have to endure to get up to Kelia’s standards by the banquet. It would be a ridiculous amount of work and he wouldn’t recover from the soreness for weeks after. 

As Lance passed the hall where Keith and Shiro were staying, he saw a guard standing there. He smiled and waved at him. 

The guard looked away, as if he was...embarrassed ?

He was the guard from Lance’s dream. Why did he look away bashfully? It was a dream, right? It felt real but he woke up in his room and he didn’t remember walking back to his room. 

“Why is everything a secret?” Lance murmured. 

He got to his room and went into his closet to get his practice clothes. He got down a trunk labeled ‘Performance Clothes’ and placed it on the bottom level of his closet, so that dress rehearsals and other times where he’d have to try on one of his costumes would be made easier for him. 

“Oh god. Kelia’s going to quiznacking murder me.” Lance bolted for his teacher’s dance room when he saw what time it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM SO SORRY GUYS. I’ve been hella busy with school lately and I got a new puppy (we’ve had him for a month today!) so I’ve been super busy with caring for him. Thank you so much for putting up with my inconsistency, I can’t even express how grateful I am. Anyway, love you guys and hope you love the chapter :)


	7. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith’s POV

__

Hot.

It’s so hot.

I can’t stand it.

It’s unbearable.

Wait.

Cold...Blue?

  
Keith woke up, sweating. He scrambled to a desk in the corner of his room and messily scribbled down words. “Hot,” “Red”,” Cold,” and the last word, “Blue.” Keith didn’t know what they meant, he felt that he should.

Every night of this week he had the same dream. He was in the dark, burning up in an unbearable heat that seemed to have no source. He would then feel something, something that made every one of his instincts scream at him to go to it. It was cold, it was lovely, it was everything Keith needed, but Keith had never seen what it was.

At first he thought it was a normal heat dream, he got those every time he went through a cycle, but this was somewhat different. The burning sensation was always there, because of the heat, but it was minimal and he was always somewhere, not in pitch black darkness, and he certainly never felt the sensation that was in his dream this past week.

Keith assumed he saw whatever was calling out to him this time because his heat was practically over and he wasn’t woken up by the urge to fuck something.

Keith stared at the largest of the written words.

BLUE was written in all caps, taking up nearly a third of the piece of paper. He didn’t see a person, or a figure, or anything. Just Blue.

A beautiful glowing type of blue. The type that reminded Keith of an ocean he visited once when he was young. When his mother was still alive and when he wasn’t burdened by anything except how soon he’d have to leave the beautiful planet and the gorgeous ocean that seemed like it would never end.

A gorgeous blue that Keith recently saw, but couldn’t remember where he saw it.

A blue that was mischievous and sassy, that offered comfort but was also fierce and vibrant and couldn’t be pushed around.

“Who are you?” Keith whispered, touching the letters with one of his fingers.

  
“Keith!” A loud knock sounded and Keith realized he was butt-ass naked and his door was unlocked. He ripped a sheet off of his bed and covered himself just in time for someone to walk in.

“Father, some warning please.” Keith panted from moving so quickly. Scrambling to cover more of himself.

“That’s what the knock was for though?” Thace said, making a face of disgust as he stepped over the stained sheet, that was covering his son, so that he could sit at Keith’s desk.

“What’s this?” Thace asked as he picked up the paper. Keith tried to grab it, but his father had already seen the four letters scribbled onto the paper.

Thace was silent, staring at the paper with a strange look on his face. Keith saw it as clear as day, his father mouthed the word “BLUE” and Keith saw his eyebrows furrow deeper in confusion.

“Well, get dressed Keith, you’re back on the job again tomorrow but you should make an appearance at dinner. Ulaz, Shiro, and I are heading back home tonight and we won’t be back for about three phoebs. Or until your next heat cycle.” Thace got up and walked, pausing at the door frame.

“I’ll get someone to clean your room, and you can wear your more comfortable clothes, King Cyril and Queen Siena have approved it for tonight.” Keith nodded and his father left him to get dressed.

 

He groaned as he stretched to grab the box of other clothes that he brought with him. He pulled out a black shirt and some loosely fitted black pants, as well as a red jacket that fell a little short on him. He carefully pulled on some loose fitting underwear before dressing himself slowly. Keith hated having to get dressed this quickly after a heat cycle, since he was so sensitive, but he pushed through it.

There was still some time before dinner so Keith thought he’d try and find Shiro. He should be on a break right now, since Lance should be in his final lesson.

He walked down a hallway, hearing some voices. Presumably guards who might know where Shiro was. As he approached the voices, he instead saw a slightly  open room that looked like a large dance room with high ceilings.

“No. No. No! Lance we’ve gone over this part of your routine so many times. How have you not gotten this down yet? This is a simple trick. It’s splits and then wrap your stomach and then roll down!” A beautiful, tall Altean woman yelled at the prince. “Again!” She clapped her hands and music started playing.

Keith peeked through the door and saw the prince in a black bodysuit that stuck to his skin. Lance was on a pair of deep red silks and was tangled up in them, pulling himself around and maneuvering his body in a graceful dance. Keith saw him do a complete split (to his amazement) and then saw Lance bring his legs together, gracefully maneuver himself to wear his stomach was wrapped in the silk, and rapidly fall, spinning towards the floor. Lance caught himself, still in the silks, and breathed out deeply.

“Good! That was what I wanted to see, I knew you could do it, Lance!” The woman clapped and smiled, watching Lance slowly untangle himself from the silks and step out, holding them in his hand.

“Alright, I think that’s enough for today. Go ahead and clean up. I’ll see you tomorrow, love.” The woman smiled and Lance tied the silks in a knot, so they wouldn’t drag on the ground.

“Thanks Kelia, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Lance called and started walking toward the door.

Keith stumbled backwards right before Lance opened the door all the way.

“Wh-Keith? Why are you here?” Lance cocked a hip and stared up at Keith.

“I-I was looking for Shiro. Why were you dancing? Don’t you have language lessons at this time?”

“My parents planned a surprise banquet set for next month and decided that I have to perform, so I’ve taken out language and calligraphy for the next month to learn a silks routine. Today was my first day and I’ve already got screamed at and got my ass beaten.” Lance realized he was blabbering and looked away from Keith. “Shiro’s in there.” Lance pointed to a room across the hall and walked towards it, knocking on the door.

Shiro opened it and looked at the prince.

“You’re done with practice? I’ll walk with you to your room so you can get prepared for dinn-“ Shiro’s eyes flicked towards Keith. “Why are you out and about? Aren’t you too sensiti-mmf!” Keith slapped his hand over Shiro’s mouth and Lance jumped.

“Yes, but my wonderful father said I must appear at dinner because I won’t be seeing him, Ulaz, or you for a few phoebs.” Keith said through gritted teeth. “Please don’t talk about these matters in front of Lance.” Keith whispered to only Shiro as the three started walking with Lance, towards his room.

“Sorry Keith, I guess you just have to pray to the space worm for help with your soreness.” Shiro dodged Keith’s punch and chuckled. Keith could feel the heat that rose to his face and saw Lance look back with a questioning look in his blue eyes.

  
Blue eyes

  
Keith shook his head. He would absolutely not even consider that Lance’s eyes were the same color blue that he was drawn to in his dream. Absolutely not. Never. Not in a million years. He’d rather walk in on Ulaz and his father during one of their “meetings” then even think that those eyes did belong to a sassy and mischievous person who refused to be pushed around. Nope.

“KEITH??? Hello????” Lance’s hand had pushed back on his chest and Keith looked up.

“I don’t need to be guarded while inside my own room.” Lance smirked at his guard who had spaced out.

“Sorry, Lance.” Keith backed off and glared at Shiro, who was snickering.

“You aren’t very professional with him Mr. Shirogane.” Keith bit at his friend.

“Well, I’m only going to be here a few times a deca-phoeb and he’s pretty relaxed so I figured I wouldn’t be strict.” Shiro shrugged.

“He’s such an asshole though? He’s rude and annoying and-ugh! I can barely stand him.” Keith leaned back against a wall and crossed his legs, but his eyes widened and he was soon crouched on the ground.

“Why did my father make me come out here? I need to recover for more than ten dobashes.” Keith slowly got up, with Shiro’s help.

“You’ve been in similar situations and have been fine before, is something wrong?”

“I don’t know. It was way more intense this time around, I’m surprised I didn’t need scent blockers.”

“Well, we are in Altea and they don’t pick up on Galran pheromones. Or at least I don’t think they do,” Shiro stared off into space, seemingly thinking about something. “Well your cycle was almost an entire phoeb early, this was supposed to just be an introduction visit. Maybe it has something to do with that?”

“See, that’s weird as hell too. I had a weird dream too. Like every night this week and it was the same dream. Except I saw something new this past night. It was...blue? Like I could feel it calling to me and I don’t know what to think of that. It felt so safe and it felt like it was what I needed to ease this unbearable burning sensation...” Keith stopped as he heard the door click and start to open.

“Hey Lance I found out what you and Keith have in common! Weird dreams about smell and color.” Shiro smiled.

“Smell?”

“Color?”

Lance and Keith said at the exact same time.

“Did the guards tell you that old folktale?” Lance scoffed and started walking towards the dining hall.

“What folktale?” Keith and Shiro followed Lance.

“It’s said that when Alteans find their soulmates they have dreams about a color. That color is usually the same as an Altean’s markings. Although many markings are the same color it is said that you can feel your soulmate’s personality traits.” Lance explained. “Although you aren’t Altean.”

Keith was so confused.

“Well I guess Shiro told you that Galrans can smell a specific scent when they find their soulmates. Although you aren’t Galra.” Keith mocked Lance’s tone on the last part and the two angrily stomped towards the dining room, Shiro hurrying ahead to open the door.

  
What the hell is going on

  
That was the only sentence running through Keith’s head. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry I haven’t updated in so long! I was going to last week and I completely forgot about it. So sorry for being so inconsistent, I know I keep going back on my “weekly update” schedule but it’s the nearing the end of my school year and I’m getting really busy. Anyways, hope you enjoyed <3


	8. Quiznack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith figures some shit out and so does Lance. They don’t know what to do.

Keith’s eyes flew open and he ran out of his room.

Keith wasn’t really conscious. He knew what he was doing and where he was but he couldn’t control his body. 

An Altean guard’s body stopped the sprinting Galra in his tracks. 

“I’m so sorry! Are you-are you okay? You look terrible!” Keith looked up at the guard, gasping for breath. Keith stood up and heard his claws scratch the smooth floor. 

“I’m fine.” Keith used the guard’s extended hand to get up and thanked her before going back to his room. 

He ran to his bathroom and splashed water on his face and staring at himself in the mirror. 

Could he even say “himself”?

Keith saw a version of himself for sure. Blown out pupils, his purple and red hair was puffed up, his claws weren’t retracted like they usually were, he was still breathing heavily. It was like he was in heat but he didn’t have the same feelings or urges, he just had the look. 

“Whatever...” Keith tried ignored it and got dressed, but it was still in the back of his mind and he still felt like he had to sprint somewhere. It was an overwhelming urge that he could barely suppress. 

He was trained to suppress feelings, he had to if he was going to be the emperor, so he kept pushing forward. He kept moving and went to go get Lance. 

While walking he saw the guard he ran into again and apologized, making up some bullshit excuse about some fake Galran thing. He could only hope that the guard’s weren’t taught different species’ instinctual traits. 

“It’s time for breakfast.” Keith called and, to his surprise, Lance came out fully dressed. 

“You’re la- oh my goodness you look awful!” Lance looked concerned. Keith stared into his eyes. 

“You’re eyes look like the sea...” Keith slapped a hand over his mouth as soon as he realized his thought had escaped. 

“Umm thanks? You smell like flowers and my favorite dessert, gaela?” Lance blushed as Keith’s eyes widened. “I was only returning the compliment.” Lance walked away, Keith trailing behind him. 

Keith smiled to himself, then realized he was smiling to himself and made excuses for all of the fluffy feelings he had. 

“Oh Keith, so glad to have you back for real!” Siena smiled warmly, Cyril nodded towards Keith. 

“I’m glad to be back on the job, it’s much more...it’s better then last week for sure.” Keith sat down in his usual seat and began to plate his food. 

“Well, I assume you’ve heard about the banquet from Shiro?” Siena asked Keith. 

“I have.”

“Perfect. It will be next month, and Lance will be dancing, so his schedule will be slightly changed.”

“May I ask what the banquet is for? And why it’s so sudden?”

“Well, we don’t want to-“

“Lance is ready to begin looking for a life partner. The other day his markings were glowing, which is a sign that a young Altean is ready to take a partner.” Cyril cut off his wife. 

Everyone turned when they heard metal hit a plate. Lance had dropped his fork and was staring off into space, a huge flare of red present on his face. 

“W-what. Why? Wha-why didn’t anyone tell me this before?” Lance turned to his parents. 

“Well dear, you seemed to be overwhelmed already. Have you had any walking dreams? Or have you dreamt of colors?” Siena had a soft look on her face. 

“I-I had a walking dream I guess? It was like I was floating and I could only walk to what was calling to me. didn’t see colors I smelled something wonderful, like gaela and, it was just so amazing. If i has to put a color on it...it would be red i suppose. Warm and fiery.” 

It was Keith’s turn to drop his fork. Lance said he smelled like gaela. Lance had had heat-like symptoms during Keith’s heat, something soulmates showed in Galran culture. Keith had seen blue, he had felt Lance’s personality through his dreams. He had experienced things that Alteans experiences when finding their soulmate. 

Keith’s world was being ripped apart and sewn together all at the same time and he didn’t know what to do. 

“Keith?”

No answer. 

“Keith!” Keith’s shoulder was shaken by Lance as the other boy called his name. 

“Keith are you feeling okay?” Cyril and Siena both asked. 

“I-I’m alright.” Keith stood up and stared at Lance. His walls had been torn down and he knew. 

“Mother, Father, should I take him to his room? I’ll be alright for today. I promise.” Lance stood up too, staring at Keith. 

“That’s fine Lance. Keith, we will send someone to check on you soon. Please call if you need anything.” Cyril waved the two away and Lance placed a hand of Keith’s back, guiding his stunned body guard out of the dining room. 

 

“Keith, what the hell? Are you sick or something?” Lance helped Keith sit down. The prince looked around his guard’s room, seeing a piece of paper with words scribbled all over it. He noticed the large word BLUE on the paper and furrowed his brows. 

He took a deep breath. 

Oh. Shit. Lance thought. 

Gaela. Gaela and flowers and...red. Warm fiery red was all Lance could think of as he felt himself being engulfed by the best smell in the universe. Lance stared at Keith who was lying down. 

“I have to go. Feel better.” Lance rushed out of the room after Keith acknowledged what he had said. 

He slammed his body onto the wall after he had rounded the hallway’s corner. 

Keith was Lance’s soulmate and Lance knew it. It had all made sense. Keith’s “color dream” and Shiro’s reaction after hearing both his and Keith’s stories. 

Lance was Keith’s soulmate, and Keith knew it. 

Both groaned and showed their frustration in various ways. Including, but not limited to, sliding their hands down their faces, grabbing their hair and pulling, and mentally (and verbally) swearing like sailors. 

Quiznack. 

“I’ll never tell him.” Both said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just got through a week of fucking hell so sorry if this chapter is bad. I was deciding whether to have them slowly figure stuff out or have it slam them into a wall. My choice was obvious. Don’t worry though, they won’t just all of a sudden have happily ever after ;)


	9. Rubies and Sapphires

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically Lance and Keith processing.

Lance couldn’t sleep. He was exhausted from his lessons and his silk practice but he couldn’t sleep. He had been lying on his bed for hours but he just could not fall asleep. 

Lance got up and went to his bathroom. He didn’t bother pulling on his robe, although it was quite cold in the room. He slumped over the sink and stared into the mirror. His hair was a curly, fluffy, brown mess and the boy ran a hand through it, slightly tugging. 

“Why does it have to be him?” Lance mumbled at himself in the mirror. “I always thought I’d marry a cute, tiny girl. I’d also be okay with a guy, it doesn’t really matter, but...Keith? Ugh. He’s rough and a giant and he’s unsociable. He’s basically a giant cat. I mean yeah he’s really fucking cute and his scent lowkey makes my body melt but-“ Lance stared at himself. 

“What the fuck.” Lance laughed, nervous and scared at the same time. He noticed that his markings were faintly glowing all over his body. 

“I cannot marry Keith, absolutely not. I mean he’s my bodyguard? I barely even know him!” Lance furrowed his eyebrows. “I mean, I know that Shiro is basically his brother and that his father and Ulaz are together and that he looks extremely similar to his mother, except his hair has streaks of red instead of pink. I also know that he likes the ocean and he hates the food goo with a passion...” Lance trailed off. 

“That’s still not a lot though Lance, you still have no reason to be his soulmate. I mean you don’t really choose your soulmate but still. Keith? Really?” Lance pushed off the sink and turned away from his reflection. 

What the hell? Is all the prince could think. 

He paced his bedroom for a while, thinking of Keith. More specifically why he was absolutely, under no circumstances, Keith’s soulmate. That slowly morphed into analyzing the signs, which then morphed into Lance realizing further that he was definitely Keith’s soulmate. 

“I mean, at least it isn’t Loturd. I might actually run away to live with Hunk and the other Balmerans if that were to happen.” Lance shook his head and ran his fingers over his face. 

There was a knock at the door and Lance quickly turned toward it. 

“It’s time to wake up.” Keith called. 

A strange feeling surged through Lance’s body, and he about collapsed to the floor because of how powerful it was. It took his breath away and made his heart pound. 

“Why the fuck does this happen now that I know?” Lance threw on his clothes and recalled that he read something that said: ‘knowledge breaks down doors you didn’t know were closed.’ He rolled his eyes and went to stand at his door. 

He froze. If just hearing Keith’s voice has made him almost physically collapse then what would seeing him do?

“Guess I just won’t look at him.” Lance whispered and opened his door. He started walking before Keith even said good morning. 

“Lance! What the hell?” Keith called. Lance’s heart clenched and he just about punched a wall out of frustration. 

 

~

 

Keith was slowly dressing himself, dreading having to be around Lance all day. How the fuck were they soulmates? Lance was annoying and selfish and a prick and beautiful and comforting and nice and had the bluest eyes ever and-

Keith slapped his face lightly, swearing silently and finishing putting on his uniform. 

“I guess I’ll just have to deal with it. There’s nothing I can do about it, it’s what the universe wanted.” Keith sighed and started heading out of his room. 

He walked down the hallway and towards Lance’s quarters. Keith was glad that Lance’s room was a decent distance away from his. If it was closer there might me an accident during his next heat, whether it was on his or Lance’s side. 

“It’s time to wake up!” Keith yelled through the locked door. Keith felt a twinge in his heart and he sucked in a breath for absolutely no reason. He thought he heard Lance say something, but couldn’t tell for sure. He honestly didn’t know what he would do or what would happen. 

Did Lance know they were soulmates? Keith hoped to every being in the universe he didn’t. He couldn’t face Lance if Lance knew. 

Lance suddenly walked out of his door, not stopping to even look at Keith. 

“Lance! What the hell?” Keith picked up his pace. He saw Lance twitch, but the prince kept the same walking speed. 

Keith jogged to catch up to him. Although his legs were taller, Lance was quite quick. 

Keith grabbed Lance’s shoulder, spinning him around. He felt a strange energy course through him and he saw something flicker across Lance’s face. 

“Are you alright? You look exhausted,” Keith was concerned for Lance, he looked about ready to break. “Y-you’re hair is also curly?” 

“I forgot to straighten it. I’m fine.” Lance pulled away and started hurrying more quickly towards the dining room. Keith saw him clutching his shoulder and made a mental note to make sure and be gentler, he probably grabbed too hard.

He continued his pursuit of the prince and walked into the dining room soon after Lance had. The two sat in their regular seats, but remained silent. 

“Oh Lance you finally let your natural hair show! I want it like that at the banquet too.” Siena smiles at her son. 

“But mo-“

“No buts. Your natural hair is beautiful and needs to heal from all of that heat damage you make it endure.” Siena took a bite of the food on her plate and looked to Keith. “Do you feel better Keith? You went into quite a shock yesterday. Do you know what happened?”

“I’m alright now. I just kind of...I’m not really sure, thank you for your concern.” Keith had practically forced himself not to look at Lance at any point in that sentence. 

“Of course.” Siena smiled. 

“Lance, we’ve invited every young Altean who has red markings to attend the banquet.” Cyril said after he had sipped some of his drink out of his cup. He looked up and mumbled, “that includes half Alteans.” 

“Father no. Absolutely not.” Lance was staring at his parents in disbelief, Keith cocked an eyebrow, staring at Lance. 

“He applies to the criteria Lance and you know it.”

“I will never marry that-“

“Lance!” Cyril glared at his son. 

“Prince Lotor is not as bad as you’ve made him out to be. Yes he can be...troubling sometimes but he is a lovely candidate for your partner and if he turns out to be your soulmate, you better except it.” Lance rolled his eyes at his father’s statement and groaned. 

“I’d rather die then marry that prima donna. Plus I have a feeling that it’s definitely someone else. A very good feeling.” Lance dropped his head and Keith sucked in a breath. 

Keith could have bet ten million GAK that Lance’s eyes had flicked over to him, but he didn’t want to think about the possibility that Lance knew too. 

“Besides, what if my soulmate isn’t even Altean at all? Why does it always have to be Altean with Altean?” Lance said. 

Fuck

“That’s very rare Lance, you know that. I mean it could be possible but you could t really know that unless...”

“Unless you’re displaying the other race’s soulmate-seeking traits, father. I know all of this I’m not a child.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 

“I mean, I didn’t see colors, I was drawn to a scent.” Lance crossed his arms and sat back, eyes suddenly widening. “That could just be a coincidence I guess.”

“No. No, you’re right. Siena, darling, what cultures have scent traits?” Cyril waved to a server in the room and asked him to grab him some paper and a pen. 

“Well, the Akie, the Nova, the Ataralans, and the Galra.” Siena listed and Cyril jotted then down once he got his paper and pen. 

“Lance, it’s time for your first lesson.” Keith interjected, eager to leave the room before the King and Queen pieced things together. 

The two young men stood up and left the room hastily. It was clear that they both knew what the other did. 

As soon as the door closed Keith felt the mood darken. 

“Keith...”

“No. We’ll talk about it later. Im not doing this right now, it’s too much to process for the both of us.”

“Ok.” Lance sighed in relief. 

Keith could tell that Lance was relieved. However, Keith knew that they’d have to talk later and he was not at all at peace. He actually wanted to crawl into a hole for a few centuries, but that wasn’t a realistic option. 

The topic was looming over their heads, like a storm cloud ready to strike lightning down on a peaceful meadow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whaaaaaaaat??? Another update??? I figured why tf not and I’m really inspired for this story right now. Love you guys hope you like the chapter!


	10. Prep Time (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Preparing for the banquet

“Again!” Kelia clapped her hands and music started playing. 

Lance wanted to scream as he began his silks routine for the fifth time in a row and about the thirteenth time that day. 

He moved as gracefully and perfectly as he could manage with how much his muscles were hurting. He maneuvered himself in the dark red silks that had been set up in the banquet hall, so that he could practice in his performance environment. 

Lance finished his routine as the music faded out, held the two silks in his hand, and bowed. He used every single ounce of strength he had to not collapse on the ground as he waited for his instructor’s feedback. 

“That was very good, Lance. We’re done for today. Remember that the next couple days will be dress rehearsals. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Kelia grabbed her things and walked out of the banquet hall, which was Lance’s queue to collapse where he stood. He got off of his knees after a moment and sat down properly, beginning to lightly stretch out his muscles. 

“Are you alright?” Keith came up to Lance, who had forgotten that he was sitting to the side. 

“Yeah... Kelia’s just ruthless with practices, especially since the banquet is only three days away.” Lance stood up slowly and started doing some arm stretches. 

“We need to talk about what you’re going to do Lance.” Keith said abruptly. 

“I know.” Lance sighed and grabbed his water bottle, walking towards the exit of the large banquet hall. Keith followed closely. 

The past month, the two had been talking about them being soulmates. At first it was awkward and sometimes ended with aggressive words, but both boys had slowly decided not to fight it. They still found each other annoying and were barely able to survive a whole day close to each other, but they had, begrudgingly, accepted that they were soulmates. 

Keith followed Lance out of the castle and into the palace gardens, through a dense wall of sweet smelling vines, to a large clearing with hundreds of pink flowers. It was somewhere that Keith had never been. 

Lance sat down and stared at Keith, signaling him to do the same. Lance stared at a flower for a while and Keith looked up at the beautiful blue sky. 

“I have to choose one of the suitors presented at the banquet.” Lance whispered. Keith looked at him.

“What if-“

“It would be difficult to fit anyone else in and even if you were able to be presented as a suitor, you’d have to tell your father, who’d have to tell my parents. I don’t think either of us want to do that.” Lance flopped onto his back, picking a flower and rolling it around in his fingers. 

“Well it’s either that or you’ll have to choose someone else, which will kind of biologically suck for you, me, and your partner.” 

“Ughhhhhhhhhh why the fuck is everything so complicated. Why is my soulmate an asshole and to boot, he’s pretty much a cat? Why space worm??” Lance groaned and covered his face with his hands, rolling o to his side. 

“You’re not a ray of sunshine either ‘Your Highness’. You’re rude, arrogant, a total playboy, and you are always messing around.” Lance turned around and made a face at Keith, who returned it ten-fold. 

“Prince Lance?” Someone called. 

The two got up and came out of the vines, meeting face to face with a servant of the castle. 

“Oh good, you both must go to King Cyril’s study. He and Queen Siena have something to tell you two.” The servant girl bowed and scurried off to somewhere else. 

“Maybe they found out. That’d be awkward since they’ve pretty much made all of the preparations already.” Lance smirked. 

“It would save us trouble for sure.” 

The two started making their way toward Lance’s father’s study to learn the new information. 

 

~

 

“What?” The two boys said in unison. 

“I know, I know. It’s a little bit strange but in addition to the original criteria we are inviting royalty or people of high political standing, that meet the new requirements, to the banquet. That new criteria involves Keith as a candidate.”

“How is Keith a candidate?” Lance blurted out. 

All eyes looked at him, the same dead pan expression on everyone’s faces. 

“What?” Lance asked. Cyril buried his head in his hands and Siena sighed. 

“Keith is the heir to the Galran empire, Lance. How did you forget that?” Cyril asked. 

“Ohhh yeah. I totally thought he was just of high military standing.” Lance chuckled then stopped. 

“Anyways, what about the whole meet then not see each other thing? That’s happening the day before the banquet. When I’ll need a personal guard the most?” Lance said. 

“Well I’m glad you’re not up in arms about Keith being a candidate, like we thought you would be,” Siena said, Lance looked down at his fidgeting fingers. “The candidates and their guardians will come in tomorrow, as you already knew, so Emperor Thace and Ulaz are coming slightly early, along with Shiro, who will replace Keith as your bodyguard for the time being. 

“Keith, your quarters will be moved to the opposite side of the castle after today.” Siena told the other boy in the room. 

“May I ask why?” Keith asked while also fidgeting, trying not to look at Lance, and trying to suppress his surprise at the convenient new development. 

“Well, it’s seen as indecent for a suitor and whoever they’re trying to vie for to be in close proximity, especially when there are quite a few suitors. It would be seen as unfair.”

“I understand.” Keith was confused about what to do, and it clearly showed through. 

“You’ll be informed on everything you must do after Shiro takes over tomorrow. Thace said he’d bring all of your formal attire and not to worry yourself.” Cyril told Keith. “Also, you must address Lance formally, as we all must with you. At least until the banquet is over and Lance has made a decision. 

“I understand.” 

“Then you two are dismissed. We will see you both at dinner.” Cyril went to sit next to Siena and Keith and Lance walked out. 

“Well, things got less complicated very quickly.” Keith said. 

“Yeah. I’m not thrilled about the fact that I have to ‘choose’ you and then marry you though. I mean yeah, it’ll be a few months but still.” Lance sighed. 

Keith grumbled and his ears flattened to his head. It wasn’t like he was ecstatic either. 

The two didn’t really have a choice though, which they knew, but everybody else didn’t. 

Keith knew things were about to get really ugly really fast for him. There’d be a lot of competition and he knew his instincts would pipe up, which meant that he’d have to practice self-control like he never had to before. Galran instincts were quick to get violent, especially when it came to soulmates. 

Who knew what could happen if they got to strong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM FINALLY OUT OF SCHOOL WHICH MEANS MORE UPDATES YAY!!!
> 
> Anyway I decided to skip ahead to before the banquet, a lot of important stuff is going to happen in the next couple of chapters and the plot is going to shoot the fuck forward, so enjoy.


	11. Prep Time (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith prepares and meets the other suitors

“Keith, it’s great to see you.” Ulaz smiled and greeted the young prince. 

“Ulaz, Shiro, Father.” Keith nodded his head at all three. 

“Hello Keith. Congratulations on becoming a candidate for Prince Lance’s hand.” Thace said. Keith fidgeted and his ears twitched slightly. “Shiro take his things to his new room. Keith fill Shiro in on his schedule and duties.”

“Yes sir.” Shiro responded, picking up a large and elaborately decorated trunk.

“Just follow me, I was told where it was last night.” Keith motioned for Shiro to follow him. 

They walked to the large guest hall, large doors spread across the walls, name plates present on them. Keith opened the door with ‘Prince Keith of the Galran Empire’ written on it and entered. 

“Holy Quiznack this is beautiful.” Shiro was in awe as he set down the trunk.

“Yeah. It’s really nice, a lot nicer than my usual room.” Keith chuckled and went over to the trunk. “So what all is in here?”

“There are two day outfits, an evening outfit, and your presentation outfit. Oh, and an outfit for you to change into. There is also different soaps and hair products to wash yourself with.” 

“That’s it?”

“Well... Thace instructed that there should be mood stabilizers. Just in case of, you know, instincts.” Shiro told Keith. 

“Ok. I’ll definitely need those.” Keith mumbled. He turned around and saw Shiro, arms crossed, hip cocked, and a shit eating grin on his face. 

“You know don’t you.” Keith squinted at the other. 

“I’m not blind, Keith! I knew as soon as Lance told me about his ‘dream’. You’re like my brother Keith, I didn’t know why you didn’t just tell me.” Shiro put a hand on Keith’s shoulder. 

“I was- well we both were, in denial until about a week ago. We still aren’t thrilled but he’s going to choose me. I feel kind of bad for the others but whatever. Hopefully the mood stabilizers are strong enough, I don’t want things to go south.” 

“You’ll be okay. Now, can I hear about what my duties are for the next two days?” Shiro smiled and sat down on a chair in the room. 

 

~

 

“Princess Anu, and Queen Atina of Akie.” Announced a guard, who had been introducing the different suitors and their guardians for at least 20 dobashes. 

Lance was getting increasingly bored, but every time he even slightly slouched, his mother shot him a look. 

“Prince Keith, Emperor Thace, and his advisor, Ulaz, of the Galran Empire.” The guard announced. Lance leaned forward, trying to contain his surprise at the sight he saw. 

Keith was wearing a midnight black body suit, accompanied with a deep red cape, the Galran emblem on the back. The suit had glowing, rectangular marks near the top of the chest and the boots Keith was wearing had the glowing marks down the front of them. Around his head was a beautiful silver crown that dipped onto his forehead. 

Lance was extremely attracted to this cleaned up, and elegant looking Keith. He didn’t even care to deny it. Lance shook his head lightly and rubbed at his markings, which he assumed were probably glowing slightly, if the way they were tingling was any indication. 

After all of the suitors were announced, it was time for Lance to accept gifts. It was an Altean custom that suitors must present a gift from their province, or with the addition of other races: planet which Lance would wear or use the night that he chose who he would marry. The first who were presenting gifts were the suitors from other planets. Regretfully, the first two were a Galran and a certain half-Altean. 

“Hello, Prince Lance. I am Prince Lotor, we have met before, if you remember. My gift to you is this necklace, made from a rare and beautiful gem found on my home planet of Daibazaal.” Lotor opened a velveteen box with a necklace that had a gorgeous gem, that looked like the night sky, at the center. 

“Thank you.” Lance nodded, rolling his eyes when his head was down, he didn’t even want Lotor to entertain the idea that he might get his hand. 

“I’m Prince Keith, of the Galran Empire. I present to you a hair ornament, the flowers are deeply rooted in our Empire’s culture. They represent strength, prosperity, and-“ Keith paused and blushed. “The power of a soulmate.” He mumbled the last part. He handed the box with the ornament to Shiro, who was placing the gifts in boxes. 

Lance thanked him, trying his best not to give in to his instincts and throw himself at Keith right then and there. Lance hated that his point of view on this matter had gone from begrudging acceptance to thinking that he could possibly, maybe, but not definitely, be a tiny bit okay with choosing Keith. 

Lance reminded himself that he had to keep receiving gifts for a while. If there were only Altean candidates there would be about 10 suitors. However, with suitors from other planets being acceptable candidates, there were about 20 suitors. It was ridiculous. Lance felt kind of bad for accepting all the presents, when he already knew who he’d have to choose. He knew that he’d just return them, which made him feel slightly better but still not great. 

When all the gifts were given and explained, Lance had to say something, as part of the custom. 

He stood up in front of his throne, which was next to his parents’, and began to speak. 

“Thank you all for the wonderful and beautiful gifts. For those of you who are not from the Altean culture, I will wear the gift from the person who I’ve chosen at the end of the banquet we will have. I look forward to meeting and getting to know all of you.” Lance bowed his head politely and sat back down. 

“All of the suitors will be called for your meal, which will be a kind of social gathering for you to talk to each other. My husband, my son, and I will see you all tomorrow. Have a good evening and if you need anything tell one of the guard’s that will be positioned in the hallway where you will be staying.” Siena informed the large group of young men and women. 

The Altean royal family stood up and bowed and walked out, followed by Shiro. Lance glanced behind him to where Keith was standing and felt his markings tingle. 

 

~

 

“Oh Lance, you got such beautiful gifts! Is there anyone you’ve taken an interest in? I know you don’t know the suitors very well, except for a few, but has anyone caught your eye?” Siena held Lance’s hands and was beaming from ear to ear. 

“I think...I have someone in mind.” Lance looked away from his mother. 

“Oh, Lance, your markings are glowing again.” Cyril pointed out. Lance rubbed them out of embarrassment and looked away. 

“I’m going to go rest before my lesson with Kelia. Shiro can you take me back to my room?” Lance was already walking before he got an answer back, but Shiro followed him. 

The second they had walked out Lance turned to talk to Shiro, who was smirking down at the smaller boy. 

“D-you-did he-?” Lance stuttered. 

“Yes and no he didn’t tell me, I figured it out on my own.” 

“How?”

“Galran instincts tend to be aggressive, and when trying to compete for a mate, there is a possibility they will flare up. However, since the only other person of Galran race is Lotor, and he’s half, so there should be a very slim chance that those aggressive instincts will surface. They exception is when one is competing against others to get to their soulmate. Then those instincts easily rise to the surface and it can get bad,” Shiro looked to make sure Lance was following along. He was. “Anyways, Emperor Thace instructed me to place mood stabilizers in Keith’s luggage just in case and Keith said, and I quote, ‘I’ll definitely need these,’ meaning that there is a high possibility that those aggressive instincts will surface. That coupled with both of your guys’ dreams made it pretty clear.” Shiro finished. 

“I have questions: One, Lotor is Galran? And two, he had a dream as well?” Lance asked. 

“Daibazaal was a planet that was part of the Galran Empire, it had Galrans inhabiting it since the beginning, but it broke off a long time ago. So yes, he’s the same race. For the dreams, well yours wasn’t a dream, first of all, but I’ll let Keith explain that to you when he’s ready. Keith had constant dreams of the color blue that he could feel had the same traits as you.” Shiro said. Lance shook his head and ruffled his hair, which his mom had made forced him to not straighten. 

“Alright. Well I really need to rest, the practice is killer right now, come wake me about 15 dobashes before my lesson.” Lance opened the door to his room and waited for Shiro’s response before going in and locking it. 

He flopped down on his bed and thought about all the things going on and how he had to meet with each suitor individually the next day until he fell asleep. 

The rest of that day and all of the next day would be absolutely killer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I’m back. I totally didn’t almost publish the most fucked up fanfic ever that would have torn out peoples hearts :) because I was procrastinating on this story :)
> 
> Anyways, enjoy!!
> 
> What the guest rooms look like: https://goo.gl/images/Wrsscn
> 
> What Keith’s crown looks like:  
> https://goo.gl/images/s4XLgW


	12. The Others

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith meets the other suitors and feels some type of way

Keith woke up and for a couple of seconds freaked out. He had momentarily forgotten that he had switched rooms and had panicked slightly. He shook himself and got out of bed. 

He walked to the bathroom and took a quick shower, using the soaps and hair products Shiro had brought him. When he was done he dried off and got dressed. 

He stared at his crown, placed in its case atop the dresser in his room, for a few moments. 

“I wonder if Shiro is doing okay with the schedule. It’ll be hectic these few days.” Keith mumbled to himself. He took his crown and slid it onto his head, maneuvering his ears out from underneath it and fixing his hair to not look strange and slicked down. Keith slid on his shoes last and heard some talking outside of his room, deciding it was time he left his room. 

“Prince Keith, a note from Shiro.” The guard in front of Keith’s door handed him a note, then walked away. 

‘Keith,  
Everything is doing well on our end. Lance is super stressed out and feels kind of bad for wasting everyone’s time but other then that, he’s okay. Remember to take your mood stabilizers! I saw your ears flicking yesterday, it was like an annoyed kitten. Anyway, play nice and do NOT reveal that you are Lance’s soulmate.  
Shiro’

Keith rolled his eyes and quickly went back into his room to take one of the pills. Maybe two. Just to be safe. 

Keith walked out of his room and towards the common area, outside of the castle but near the hall where the suitors were staying. 

“Prince Keith, lovely of you to join us .” Prince Lotor called from a chair he was sitting in, sipping on a drink. Keith smiled. 

“Yes, it’s great to be able to sleep in for once, I’m usually already up and helping Prince Lance already.” Keith sat down, happy that he had unnerved everyone in the area. 

“It does seem like an unfair advantage that you’ve already spent time with the Prince.” A female Altean stated. 

“It was a professional relationship, I guess we’ll see if all his resistance toward me was truly a reflection of his feelings or not after he chooses his partner.” Keith sipped some tea that had been brought to him, smirking at the people glaring at him. 

“Come on everyone, let’s be civil. Prince Lance is spending some time with all of us these next two days so you’ll have time to woo him then.” Lotor said, to which people agreed. Keith was surprised Lotor wasn’t more competitive, seeing as he had Galran genetics and was prone to be more aggressively competitive when it came to a mate. 

 

~

 

“After Princess T’kena of Ataralan is finished, Prince Keith of the Galran Empire will talk with Prince Lance.” A person from the Altean Royal Court told the group of young men and women waiting to talk with the prince. 

“They already know each other, this isn’t fair!” A small Akien Prince whined, he wasn’t really that small but he was right next to Keith, who was a giant. Keith narrowed his eyes and his ears went back, which pretty much him shut up. 

Out of spite Keith waltz over to a patch of the beautiful pink flowers Lance had shown him and gently picked a few. Walking up the steps and into the castle when he saw the princess coming up, stopping to turn around and say, “he loves these,” to the group. He smirked when he turned around to keep walking to the meeting room and he thanked the universe that he was just being petty and not aggressive. 

Keith walked up to the door and knocked, waiting until he got permission to enter. 

When he entered, he saw just Lance, sitting across from an empty chair at a rectangular table. Keith swore he saw something flicker across Lance’s face and there was a slight flush to his skin, but he dismissed it as something he imagined. 

“Hello, Prince Lance.” Keith said in an overly formal tone, smiling when Lance laughed a little. 

“It’s only been a day, but it feels weird not having you glued to me 24/7.” 

“Oh, so you missed me?” Keith chuckled when Lance glared. “These are for you.”

“Thank you Keith. I’m not sure what to talk about with you, I already know you and I’m going to end up choosing you anyway so...” Lance set the flowers in the small vase, with other flowers, that was in the center of the table. 

“Well, apparently the fact that I have been your guard for a while is a topic of conversation. It’s stirred up some jealousy.” Keith said as he sat down. 

“Oh really? Is Prince Lotion the one kicking up a fuss?” Lance leaned back into his seat. 

“Actually, no. He doesn’t seem very concerned with winning you over, compared to the others. I was quite surprised since he’s half Galran and our instincts are incredibly strong.” 

“Hmmm, it’s quite interesting. When he came in he wasn’t very invested. Maybe it’s all a play. Reverse psychology or something. It won’t work anyway, though.” 

“It’s possible. How are you doing? Are you driving Shiro crazy already?” 

“I would never!” Lance glared. 

“Oh yes you would,” Keith chuckled. “Just because you’re cute, it doesn’t excuse the fact that you’re still annoying and selfish and spoiled.” Lance blushed. 

“So you think I’m cute?” He asked. It was Keith’s turn to blush. 

“I-we-you-I didn’t-“ Keith’s whole face was flushed and he was a spluttering mess. 

“You definitely called me cute. It’s okay, I think you look pretty good in your royal attire. You definitely have to wear it when we get married like, all the time.” Lance winked, although he was kind of dying on the inside. 

“I see you’re warming up to me now.” Keith was still blushing. 

“You’re far better then anyone that has talked to me so far.” Lance sighed and relaxed back in his chair. Keith’s instincts flooded through his body, causing him to feel a swell of pride and quietly purr. 

“Stop that, that smell is making me feel weird.” Lance said with closed eyes. “Also, did you just purr? Are you a literal cat?” 

“I can’t exactly turn my pheromones on and off, just like you can’t stop your markings from glowing whenever you catch a glimpse of me.” Keith smirked at Lance who started rubbing his facial markings. 

“Ok. Ok.”

“On the topic of that, does your whole body glow? Like not your body, but your body markings?” Keith asked. 

“T-that’s...personal,” Lance whispered. “Alteans don’t really discuss their body markings unless it’s with someone that they’re, uh, sexually active...with. They’re seen as very intimate.” Lance explained, after seeing Keith’s confused face. 

“I-oh. Sorry.” Keith sat there in awkward silence with Lance for a while. 

“Prince Keith, your time is up.” A guard called from the other side of the door. 

“Bye Keith, thanks for the flowers. I’ll see you tomorrow at the dinner.” Lance didn’t directly look at Keith, but Keith nodded and walked out. 

While on his way back, he saw the little Akien Prince making his way to the room where Lance was. 

Keith didn’t know what would happen at the dinner tomorrow, after the awkward exchange, but hopefully Lance would just move on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got some amazing comments that made me genuinely smile so here’s an update :). I love you all so much and your comments are truly what keep me going on this story. 
> 
> PILLS AND POTIONS BY NICKI MINAJ IS SO GOOD (just a side note


	13. Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dinner with the Altean Royal Family happens and it gets...tense

“Oh my god.” Lance practically collapsed onto the floor from the intensity of the practice he had just endured. He had been up in the air almost the entire time, perfecting each and every count of his routine. 

Lance looked up to Shiro, who offered a hand to help him up. 

“These practices are like Galran military training.” Shiro related. He handed Lance his towel, water bottle, and shoes. 

“Keep the shoes, my feet hurt way to much.” Lance drank from his water bottle and flung the towel over his shoulder. Shiro nodded and tucked them under his arm. 

The two began to make their way towards Lance’s room and started up some small talk. 

“So, how do you feel about the dinner tonight?” Shiro asked. 

“Some of these people are so incredibly stuck up and annoying. And I’M saying that, so it must mean something.” Shiro laughed at Lance’s comment and continued.

“Do you think you’ll sit next to Keith?”

“I’m sitting between my parents, actually. Although he might be near me or across from me. We kind of left off on an awkward note yesterday, hopefully he won’t avoid me.”

“Keith isn’t very graceful when it comes to personal relationships. When he first started hanging around me he was just a small kid, but he would ask the strangest questions and insist on knowing the answer, no matter how embarrassing it was,” Shiro smiled as he reminisced. “He was such a rambunctious and feisty child, I’m glad I could be somewhat of an older brother to him. His father didn’t give him much direction and he wouldn’t listen to Ulaz very much, especially after his mother passed away. Although, he changed quite a bit when he got older.”

“He’s so gloomy, I wonder what a rowdy Keith would look like. He’s only ever been annoyed or flustered around me.”

“I’m sure you’ll see it eventually.” Shiro chuckled, finally stepping up to Lance’s door. 

“Okay, well come get me when its time for dinner.” Lance took back his shoes. 

“You got it. See you in a bit.” Shiro waved and Lance closed his door. 

 

~

 

“Lance, it’s time. Are you ready?

“Yes. I’m coming.” Lance opened his door to Shiro, whose eyes widened slightly. 

“I need to wear a more formal outfit for this dinner.”

“I was more looking at your enormous train of a cape.” Shiro stated and Lance rolled his eyes, while bundling it in his arms. 

The two got to the large dining hall, reserved for parties and gatherings, and walked inside. 

“Lance! Stop carrying your train!” Siena fussed going over to her son, taking the bundle from him and straightening it out behind him. 

“It’s heavy though.” The prince complained. 

“Oh, hush. The suitors will be coming in any minute and we must greet them properly and you, mister, must look presentable.” Siena called over Shiro to help straighten Lance’s cape train to her liking. “Now stand here until you have to walk to your seat.” Siena stood next to her son, Cyril stood on the other side fidgeting away, and Shiro went to stand in his corner. 

“Cyril, darling you really need to stop being so nervous.” Siena told her husband. 

“I’m sorry my flower, I just have a strange feeling about tonight is all,” Cyril turned from his wife to his son. “Lance this is a pivotal moment in choosing who you will marry. After tonight you must choose. The banquet is tomorrow.” Lance nodded, just in time for there to be a knock on the door. 

Each prince and princess walked in, greeted the royal family, and went to find where they had been seated. 

When Keith walked up to greet them, Lance noticed that he looked slightly irritated. Maybe the others had been hassling him again. He wanted to ask, but knew he couldn’t.

When everyone had sat down, including Lance and his parents, he looked for Keith, who was sitting almost directly across from him. The Galran Prince still looked irritated, ears fidgeting and eye twitching. Lance quickly glanced over to Shiro, who had also zeroed in on Keith. The older Galran looked concerned, very concerned. 

“Thank you all for joining us for this meal. We hope everything is to your liking. Please, feel free to converse with each other, us, and Prince Lance.” Siena said. She glanced over to her husband and son, who now both looked uneasy. 

~

Keith had forgotten to take his mood stabilizers. 

He was already stressed and the competitive atmosphere wasn’t helping. He had seen Shiro and Lance staring at him. All he had to do was stay calm and make it through these next couple hours.

“Prince Lance looks absolutely stunning tonight. If he chooses me I won’t waste any time to get a taste of him.” One of the princes sitting next to Keith whispered to another, who agreed. 

Calm down. 

Keith shoved some of the appetizer that had just been brought out into his mouth, trying desperately to ignore the side conversations. 

“You know, I heard that the Prince was kind of a slut before he got a personal guard. He was seen flirting with anyone and everyone at any chance he got.” A princess near Keith whispered. 

“Somebody that wild submitting to you would be a great feeling.” The person next to her said. 

Calm. Down. 

Keith could feel his ears starting to press against his head. 

“Prince Keith,” King Cyril called to him, smiling. “How are you holding up?”

“Fine, thank you so much for your hospitality, I am very grateful for this opportunity.” Keith smiled, this could be helpful in distracting him. 

“Prince Lance deserves better then some trash Galran like him.” One of the Altean princes whispered to another. Keith took a deep breath and took another bite of his food, listening to King Cyril talking. 

Keith caught a glimpse of Lance looking at him, concern etched into his face. Keith smiled and Lance half-smiled back. He turned to his father and whispered something. 

Keith heard another insult thrown at him, mixed with another raunchy comment about Lance and he felt his claws starting to unsheathe themselves. 

He looked over to Shiro who had now moved out of the corner of the room and more towards the center, behind the King, Queen, and Prince. 

Shiro mouthed ‘forget stabilizers’, cocking an eyebrow. Keith nodded, causing Shiro to straighten up more. There wasn’t much the two could do, especially Keith. He just had to try to stay calm. 

The main course got brought in and Keith forced himself to focus on eating. This worked for a while, until the dessert course was brought in. 

Keith was holding his glass of water when he heard someone quietly mention, quite graphically, what they would do to Lance if they were chosen. 

Keith’s glass shattered in his hand. It had broken under the pressure. 

Everyone looked at him, eyes wide. Keith looked at his hand, which was starting to bleed. 

“Prince Keith, are you alright?” Siena asked. 

“Sorry, Galrans have extra sensitive hearing, his senses probably got overloaded. I’ll take him to get his hand patched up.” Shiro rushed over to Keith and helped him out of his chair. 

Keith saw the faces of the people who had been talking badly all night pale. He smirked and walked out next to Shiro. 

When the door closed and they were far enough away, Shiro spun Keith to look at him and glared, ears turned downwards. 

“What the hell was that? Why didn’t you take your mood stabilizers?” 

“I forgot. The others were irritating me and I didn’t have time to run and take them.”

“You still should’ve been able to contain yourself better.”

“Trust me Shiro, I was doing way better then one would expect. I had to do everything in my power not to cave into my instincts and rip out those filthy peoples’ throats.” Keith snarled, eyes flashing, his claws coming out more, and the fur on the back of his neck starting to rise.

“Ok, ok. Calm down. Let’s get your hand patched up. Whatever those people were saying was clearly bad, seeing the way you reacted .” Shiro said, sitting Keith down in the room where basic medical supplies were. 

“They were insulting me, which is something I can handle, but they started to say things about Lance. Horrible things about him being a slut, which isn’t true, and about what th-what they’d do to him if they were chosen. I only didn’t go overboard because I know he’ll pick me.” Keith snapped. Shiro furrowed his eyebrows as he cleaned and wrapped Keith’s hand. 

“Maybe that should be brought to the attention of the King and Queen?” Shiro mumbled. 

“They’d find out though, why I reacted so much. Normal competitiveness doesn’t warrant that reaction.”

“Not if I say that it’s because you feel protective of him because of you guarding him for a while.” Shiro mentioned. Keith nodded. 

“Thanks Shiro. For my hand and telling them. Do you know who was saying stuff?” Keith asked.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure Queen Siena will be able to pick out who said it too. There were people who looked scared to their core when I mentioned how Galrans have ‘extra sensitive hearing’.” 

“Okay. I think I’ll just go back to my room for the night, can you send my apologies to the King and Queen? And Lance? I just don’t think I can stay as calm as I did and I don’t want there to be any more injuries.” Keith rubbed his palm gently. 

“Sure. Want me to walk you back?” Shiro helped Keith stand up. 

“No, it’s close. I’ll see you tomorrow, Shiro.” Kieth said, hugging Shiro.

“See you tomorrow. You also might want to keep the stabilizers on you for tomorrow. People might not be as ready to voice their thoughts, but it’s better to be safe.” Keith agreed with Shiro and the two parted ways. 

It was still a surprise to Keith how well he kept it together. However, it was still shameful that he was so clearly angry. Hopefully the King and Queen would understand. Even more importantly, Keith hoped that Lance would understand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two days in a row! Thank you to all the people who read this, I would have stopped many chapters ago if it weren’t for you guys. <3


	14. The Banquet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The long awaited banquet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Lance does his silks routine to is “Seduction” by Adam Hurst, in case you guys wanted to have a clue about the atmosphere and mood of the dance. It’s an amazing piece I really encourage you guys to listen to it!
> 
> Lance’s costume (imagine there are long sleeves that are like non-see through lace and a turtle neck): https://goo.gl/images/MxXpp4

Lance sat down to breakfast, not wanting to talk to anyone. But lo and behold, his parents immediately started berating him about his decision. 

“Have you chosen, dear? I know you still have a while but you must have a good idea.” Siena was clearly radiating joy. 

“I really want to wait until after my performances to decide.” Lance grumbled. It wasn’t true, but his parents didn’t need to know that and it got them off his case. 

“Shiro, was Keith alright?” Cyril asked. 

“Yes, I didn’t want to say in front of everyone but he heard some fairly disturbing comments coming from some of the suitors. He feels quite protective of Lance due to guarding him for a while, so his instincts kicked in. He asked me to apologize for him, he didn’t know if he could keep calm if he heard another comment.” Lance felt a flutter in his chest because of the comment. Keith had gotten that mad because of comments made about him? 

“I think I can discern who was talking about my son. I may have to ask them to leave before the banquet.” Siena mumbled angrily. Both Cyril and Shiro agreed with her. 

“Why don’t I just tell them that they’re excused now,” Siena waved over a guard. “Nessa, please bring me some paper and a pen. I’ll write a list of those who will be asked to leave.” 

Lance was shocked at how quickly his mother acted. He felt better that people who were making disgusting comments about him were leaving, but he didn’t expect them to be kicked out with such haste. 

Once the list was written and Nessa and some other guard left the room, the Queen resumed talking to her son. 

“Well, Lance, after your performance you must change into your outfit for the banquet and we will have some servants help you with changing your makeup.” She stated. 

“Why do I have to wear makeup? It makes my face itchy and I’ll be all sweaty.” 

“Stop complaining. Shiro will bring you the gift of who you choose and he’ll put it on for you before you enter the banquet hall. Also, Allura and her parents will be visiting tonight.”

“What about Coran?” 

“Him too.” 

Lance smiled. Coran was like a cool uncle, even though King Alfor was his real uncle. He was also happy that he could see Allura, who was like an older sister to him. 

“We’ll introduce them to you more personally when they get here, Shiro. Alfor my brother and the king of the Western part of Altea. His wife, Poluxia, their daughter Allura, and their advisor Coran.” Siena told the Galran, who was eating his own breakfast, and simply nodded. 

~

“Allura!” Lance ran to his cousin and embraced her spinning around.

“Lance, how are you? Are you nervous? I can’t believe you’re marrying before me.” Allura beamed, holding onto Lance’s hands. 

“Well, you’ll meet someone or start showing signs soon enough. I guess you’re just a late bloomer.” Lance laughed as Allura pouted and glared, all the while blushing. The two walked over to their parents, Coran, and Shiro. 

“Lance, my boy, you’re doing well I see.” Coran smiled and gave Lance a hug. 

“What about us? Are we invisible?” Alfor laughed, Poluxia smiling at her nephew as well. Lance hugged them both. 

“We’d like to introduce you to Shiro, who has taken over as guard for Lance. He’s part of the Galran Empire, and very close to the royal family.” Cyril gestures toward the, much bigger, person next to him. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all.” Shiro bowed his head. 

“Oh, the pleasure is ours, thank you for taking care of our nephew.” Poluxia stayed, smiling. 

“Yes. Cyril, did you say Shiro has ‘taken over’ as Lance’s guard?” Alfor asked. 

“Oh, yes. Prince Keith was originally his guard, but has stopped recently due to him being a suitor.” Cyril informed. Lance put his hands up to his face in a feeble attempt to hide his flushed face.

“Oooooh, I see.” Allura smirked at Lance, who hid more into his hands. 

“Now, now, Allura.” Coran whispered to the princess. 

“Well, why don’t we talk more out in the garden. Allura, you may join Lance in his preparations if you would like. Shiro will be there as well, if you don’t mind.” Siena said to her niece. 

“May I?” Allura turned to her parents. 

“Go ahead, darling.” Poluxia smiled. With that, Lance, Shiro, and Allura started off to his room. 

“I see your mother is dressing as emo as ever.” Lance snickered. 

“Oh hush, Lance. We all know you went through that phase too.” Allura teased, and Lance stuck his tongue out a her. 

“Umm, what?” Shiro inquired.

“Pink is the color that honors fallen warriors. It’s generally the color worn and used at funerals and such.” Lance explained. 

“Oh. Alright.” Shiro blinked and kept walking. 

“You can come in Shiro, I need you to retrieve the gift from the trunks in my room, please. You know which one obviously.” Lance waved in his cousin and his guard. 

“You’ve already chosen? Do your parents know who it is?” Allura smiled and sat on a pouf in the room. 

“I told them I would wait to decide but I definitely know who to choose. You can’t tell, but he’s my soulmate.”

“He?? Oh Lance, I’m so happy for you! I hope to marry my soulmate soon. I’ve met them but I haven’t shown any signs yet so my parents won’t hold a banquet for me or let me marry yet.” Allura sighed. 

“You know who your soulmate is? Allura holy quiznack, who is it?” Lance had dragged a chair in front of her and had his head resting on his palms. 

“You won’t tell me, so I won’t tell you. However, I will say that you know him.” 

Lance practically squealed and made her promise to tell him after his soulmate was revealed. 

“Lance, where do you want me to put this?” Shiro held the wooden box, that contained the hair pin. 

“Just set it on my dresser please, next to the crown case. Thank you so much Shiro. You can come talk with us if you would like to, I’ll just kick you both out when I have to get ready.” Lance laughed at the simultaneous glare he received. 

The three started talking about all kinds of stuff, including Lance’s embarrassing childhood stories, which he desperately tried to stop Allura from telling. 

When the time for Lance to get ready arrived, he became super nervous and asked the two to leave the room. 

“Shiro, take Allura to her parents, they should be in the banquet hall chatting with other royal families. Then come back, please.” Shiro nodded. 

“Good luck, Lance. You’ll look absolutely dashing.” Allura hugged her cousin and the two left. 

Lance took a deep breath and went to his closet, where his costume was sitting. He undressed and slipped on the black body suit, with a lacy, shimmery, pattern on it that kept his marking covered. He then went to take off his crown and set it in its velveteen box. 

Lance went to his vanity and started to apply his makeup. A lot of shimmer around his eyes and cheeks, along with blue pigment on his eyelids and sharp black liner. 

He stared at himself in the mirror, getting increasingly nervous. He took several deep breathes, messing with his hair all the while, and heard a knock at the door. 

“It’s time, Lance.” Shiro called out. 

Lance got up and walked to his door, opening it and looking up at his guard. Shiro smiled gently and the two started their course to get to the stage of the banquet hall. It wasn’t really a stage, it was more of an elevated part of the room with stairs leading up to it. That had curtains on it. And was against a wall of the room. And had a back entrance. Okay, maybe it was a stage. 

The two arrived, stepping quietly inside the hidden portion of the stage and Lance was about ready to explode from the stress. 

“Hey, you’ll do amazing. I’ve seen how well you do in practice and how great you are.” Shiro comforted Lance, hand on his shoulder. 

“Thank you, Shiro. I just want to look good for-“ Lance blushed. “For everyone.” He whispered. 

“Well, I’m sure you’ll look stunning for everyone.” Shiro put emphasis on the last word, knowing what the prince meant, even though Lance didn’t want to admit who he was talking about. 

The lights turned off. 

“Go get it.” Shiro whispered, smiling at Lance before he walked onto the stage. 

Lance took hold of the two silks, bringing them to the center of the stage, the lights completely turned off. 

He readied himself and heard music start to flood in as a spotlight lit up the stage. 

Lance zoned in and focused on his routine, feeling the music and becoming one with the silks, maneuvering himself gracefully. He performed a beautiful and elegant routine, that was admittedly slightly sensual, but it had stunned the audience into silence none the less.

As Lance was nearing the end of his routine, he glanced at the audience. He spotted Keith at the same time his feet touched the floor and the boy looked star struck. Lance felt a swell of strong emotions, glad the lights had turned off so that he could go to the back of the stage. He almost couldn’t hear the clapping and cheering because of how great he felt. 

“That was beautiful, Lance!” Shiro exclaimed as they walked out of the door. 

“That was one of the best performances I’ve done. Shiro, I feel so amazing right now. I thought I’d fall or mess up but I didn’t.” Lance was practically bouncing around. 

“You should have seen everyone’s faces. They were staring at you like you were some kind of mythical being.” Shiro added. 

Lance took some deep breaths and calmed down as he neared his room, where a couple of servants were waiting. 

“I’ll change and then let you guys in. Wait outside for me, Shiro. I’ll bring you the box when I come out.” Lance said as he went into his room. 

He quickly got undressed and redressed, wipes off his makeup, then let the servants in. 

They put on some more traditional makeup. Still a lot of shimmer, but added some neutral colored eye shadow, as well as a dark blue stripe onto his lips. 

The servants were flooding him with compliments during the process, making Lance blush as he bashfully thanked them. 

They finished and left, leaving Lance to grab the box that held the beautiful hairpin. He left his crown, as he had been told to do, and walked out. A long cape, once again, dragging behind him. However it was a sheer pale blue instead of the solid dark blue, like the one that he wore the other night. His outfit was also a mixture of different shades of blue and white. 

He handed Shiro the box and the two walked to the large doors that opened into the banquet hall, where everyone was waiting for him to enter. 

Shiro took the pin out of its box and carefully pinned it into his hair. The beautiful flowers on it were shining brilliantly, adding to Lance’s elegance. 

“Are you ready?” Shiro asked, looking to Lance for confirmation. 

Lance nodded, his heart was beating so fast he thought he might die. Shiro opened the doors, guards on the inside holding them open, and the two walked side by side into the hall, down a long aisle that led to the stage. 

Lance walked with his head up, a confident look on his face, as he walked towards the stairs that led to the stage, his parents awaiting him. He ignored the murmurs and gasps around him, as well as the tug of his long cape that trailed at least 15 or 20 feet behind him. 

He finally made it up the stairs and to his parents after what felt like an eternity. He turned around, ignoring his parents, who looked just as surprised as everyone else did. 

He took a deep breath and got ready to talk. 

“Good evening everyone. I’d like to take this time to first, thank everyone for coming and being a part of this wonderful custom, whether you are Altean or not.” Lance smiled and continued. “Through these past few days I have been trying to discover who my soulmate was and I found out just who it was. The person I have chosen, the person who is my soulmate, is Prince Keith of the Galran Empire.” The people in the room started to speak softly again, but quieted down when Lance began to speak again. 

“Those of you who are here, that were suitors, I wish you the best of luck in finding your own soulmates and I hope the heavens will bless you with a full life of happiness and joy. Thank you so much for allowing me to get to know you, many of you were extremely kind and your future spouses will be extremely lucky. Please, enjoy the rest of your nights and thank you for coming.” Lance bowed respectfully and heard a chorus of claps. 

The whole room went back to their own conversations and Lance and his parents went up to Keith and his family, who had been brought to the front of the room. 

“Well, I suppose we should welcome you to our family.” Siena stayed, still slightly surprised. 

“And us, you.” Thace chuckled. 

“So, how long have you two known?” Cyril asked. The two boys froze and looked at each other. The four adults raised their eyebrows in question. 

“About a month?” Lance mumbled. 

“A month?” Siena almost yelled, but not loud enough to where it could be heard over the crowd. 

“We couldn’t tell you or father because you had already called for everyone to come to the banquet. I’m not so stupid to just tell you to say ‘oh never mind,’ that’s political suicide.” Lance argued. 

“Siena, he’s correct.” Cyril mumbled. The queen rubbed her temples and sighed. 

“I suppose. Well, I’m glad that you two were able to find love.” Siena smiled at the two, who smiled awkwardly back. 

“Well, you won’t have to spend your heat alone now, will you Keith?” Thace smacked his son on the back. Keith looked horrified. 

“I’m sorry, his WHAT?” Lance stared,confused. 

“Oh, uh, we’ll let you two work out those details. We should leave you two to talk.” Thace quickly said and the adults left. Very responsible. 

Lance just outright decided to ignore that for now, deciding to look for Allura instead. 

“Oh. My. God.” He gasped. 

“Y-you don’t have t-“

“Not that! Look!” Lance spun his fiancé to look in the same direction. 

Lance’s own cousin, his beloved cousin, was talking to Prince Lotor of quiznacking Daibazaal. Not only were they talking, they were clearly flirting with each other and Allura was actually being receptive to it. 

“What in the holy fucking hell. He’s her soulmate?” Lance hissed. He grabbed Keith’s hand and started marching over to them. 

“Betrayal! My dear cousin, why?” Lance glared. 

“Lance!” Allura looked between her cousin and Lotor, who had turned around. 

“What is this?” Lance glared at Lotor then looked to Allura. 

“Lotor is my soulmate. He’s far different from when we were children. He’s, changed.” Allura smiled up at the other giant purple dude. “I suppose we have a thing for Galrans.”

Lance was so utterly offended that Lotor was Allura’s soulmate that he didn’t even know what to say. 

“Lance, maybe we should go talk to someone else.” Keith whispered, trying to bend down to his fiancé’s height. 

“Okay. You,” Lance pointed at Lotor, who looked slightly scared at the poisonous tone of the smaller Altean’s voice. “If you ever hurt her I will destroy you. Don’t think I won’t and don’t think Allura won’t tell me. It’ll be twice as bad for you because she will definitely do something first.” 

Lotor nodded and Lance looked him up and down before turning away and following Keith somewhere else. 

Although the interaction had left Lance heated, he spotted two familiar faces and felt all his negative emotions melt away. 

“Lance, Keith, congratulations!” Hunk smiled, hugging both of them. 

“Congrats you guys.” Pidge said, hugging both as well. 

“I can’t believe you guys came!”

“How could we miss our friends’ engagement ceremony?” Hunk smirked. 

“Friends’? You knew?” Keith asked, dumbfounded. 

“Balmerans are very in tune with energies, I could tell since the first time we visited when Keith started guarding you.” Hunk informed. 

“Hunk, of course, told me pretty much right away. I didn’t really believe him but he was right, as always.” Pidge rolled her eyes. 

Keith and Lance were still dumbfounded, but continued the conversation. 

Eventually, people started filtering out, and Lance got very tired and decided he should go to sleep. Keith was also tired and decided he should also go back to his room. 

It had been a crazy day, and they definitely needed their rest before wedding preparations started. 

Both Lance and Keith hoped that they’d be able to get closer before the wedding date so that they could marry someone they loved, and not marry out of obligation. Little did they know, they were already far down that path.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THREE DAYS IN A ROW BEEEEEEEEETCH!!!!!  
> (Side note: I used altean time words for a long time but screw it. It’s 4 am and I didn’t want to look it up, so sorry for that inconsistency)
> 
> I looked on my page today and I saw all the comments you guys left me and let me say, it made me feel so genuinely happy. I don’t even remember the last time I had that much joy in my heart. Thank you so much, I know I’m just some random author of a random, dumb story but you guys truly make me happy and I love all of you. Thank you for your amazing support <3


	15. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the banquet

Lance’s eyes fluttered open. 

He had passed out pretty much immediately after his head touched the pillow the night before but he felt much better now. 

Lance wondered if he had gotten up too early. He hasn’t gotten up too early, since it was only 29 dobashes before the time Keith usually came to wake him up. 

The prince wandered around his room, robe on but untied. He went over to the window, which was pretty much the entire northern wall of his bedroom, and drew open the curtains. He stared out at the beautiful fields and mountains that surrounded the castle, wondering what to do. His parents had given the both of them the day off. 

Lance made up his mind on what to do. He slid into his slippers and started walking out the door of his room. He had slept with pants and a t-shirt on, and the robe covered his arm markings, so he felt comfortable enough. 

He walked over to Keith’s room, where he was staying before. 

Lance timidly knocked on the door, hearing a gravely voice say “Coming.”

The door slid open, and a disheveled Keith squinting down at the smaller prince and leaning against the door frame was standing there. 

“L-Lance, is something wrong?” He asked, slightly flustered because of his state of being half-dressed. 

“Oh, uh, no. Nothing’s wrong. I was just wondering if you’d like to go on a walk with me in the garden. Just to talk a little,” Lance rubbed the back of his neck, trying to avoid Keith’s gaze. “It’s alright if you don’t want to, you deserve some sleep.” 

“No, I’ll go. I probably need some fresh air. Let me put on a shirt really quick.” Keith awkwardly ducked into his room, leaving the door open, to grab one of his shirts. 

Lance peeked into the room and was surprised at how messy it was. The sheets were half-dragged onto the ground and there was clothing all over the ground. There was paper spread all over the table in the room and the trash bin was overflowing with papers and pouches of juice that Keith probably got from the kitchen. 

“Okay, lets go.” Keith said yawning and pulling his shirt down the rest of the way. 

The pair stayed quiet for the part of their walk inside of the castle. Mostly because they didn’t know what to say, but partly because the castle was so quiet it would have felt strange to break it. They strolled side by side into the castle grounds, Keith was more following Lance because the boy looked like he was on a mission. 

The pair arrived to a large bond with a bridge across the middle and beautiful aquatic plant life growing around and inside of it. Little black and silver fish swam through the water and around the gorgeous flowers that sat atop the surface. 

“This place is amazing. Your castle grounds are so vast and beautiful.” Keith sighed in awe. 

“I come here a lot, it’s like the flower field but more personal since practically nobody comes here while people are always passing in and out of the field. This is my thinking place.” Lance said, a very serene look on his face as he walked up to the bridge. He leaned his elbows on the side, looking into the pond below. 

Keith took his place next to him, although he leaned his back on the side. They stayed silent for a while. Keith looking at the clouds and Lance watching the small fish weave their way through the reeds in the pond. 

“How do you feel, Keith?” Keith turned his head to look at the prince. 

“I’m fine. Is something wrong?”

“I just feel like, I don’t know, that you don’t want anything to do with this situation. My parents forced the banquet and I had to choose you and I just-I just feel bad because I don’t know what to do.” Lance whispered the last part but Keith heard. 

“Lance, I know we didn’t have time but don’t feel bad. Yes, you are super spoiled and annoying,” Keith laughed as his side got elbowed, “but, you are very kind and caring and that’s all I need to have any urge to make this work.” Lance smiled and looked at Keith. 

“I never thought I’d see the day. Mr. KittyCat Grumpington is being...dare I say, sincere?” Lance laughed at Keith’s pouty face. The much larger prince’s tail whipped and he started chasing around Lance, who had started laughing maniacally as he ran away and around the pond. 

Keith finally caught Lance and the two fell onto their backs laughing and trying to catch their breaths. 

“Damn your long legs. I could have made my escape easily if you weren’t 7 feet tall.” Lance grumbled playfully as he sat up. 

“We should probably go get breakfast. I don’t particularly want to miss Shiro, Ulaz, and my father leaving.” Keith stood up, with the help of Lance’s outstretched hand and the two made their way towards the more private dining room. 

 

~

 

“Have you two decided what to do during your heat Keith?” Thace asked. 

Keith choked on his drink and started violently coughing. Lance patted his back until he stopped. 

“Father, why would you ask me that, especially at the table, surrounded by a significant amount of people.” Keith seethed through gritted teeth.

“Oh, stop Keith. It’s not a secret that Galrans have heat cycles and you and Lance are engaged, so it’ll be perfectly fine.” 

“It’s. Really. Not.” Keith was completely flushed, ears completely flat on his head. Lance was still confused. He didn’t know that much about Galran culture but it seemed like an awkward topic. 

“Why don’t you two step outside for a minute and discuss.” Cyril said. The rest of the table agreed, but Shiro stayed silent since he was embarrassed for Keith. 

“Alright. Come on Keith.” Lance grabbed his fiancé and dragged him outside the doors of the dining hall. 

“So?”

Keith had his head buried in his hands, seeing Lance with an eyebrow raised and hand on his hip, through the cracks in his fingers. 

“Starting at around 13 to 16 decapheebs old, a Galran will have a heat every two months. It’s basically,” Keith cringed. “It’s a week of a non-stop urge to mate. Like, you physically and mentally can’t do anything else. You can barely sleep and if you forget to eat or drink in the clear moments, you can seriously damage your body. It’s bad.”

Lance stood there for a couple seconds, stunned into silence. 

“WHAT?” He yelled. “I had a rough idea but I didn’t think it was...like that!” 

Keith turned his face away in embarrassment. 

“W-when is the next one?”

“Next week.” Keith mumbled.

“Ohhhhh my goooooooooood.” Lance started to pace.

“You don’t have to help, I’ve gone through it alone up until now,” Keith said. “Although you’ll probably feel the effects, especially since we’re engaged. Our bond is stronger in that way so you’ll feel it. You’ve felt it before, but it’ll be stronger.”

“Shiro told me my ‘dream’ about your scent wasn’t a dream. Was that...?”

“Yes. You were being drawn to the scent I give off naturally but it’s amplified during my heat. Usually only other Galrans can smell it so that’s why nobody else knew.”

“Oh. Ok. I need to think about this first, I’ll let you know in a couple of days. I’m going to finish breakfast, even though they probably heard me yelling.” Lance muttered, walking back into the dining hall. 

“I see you found out Lance.” Thace chuckled as the completely red-faced boy sat back down. 

“I’m going to my room, I’ll come back before you leave.” Keith said to the group of people. 

“We aren’t leaving until tomorrow, don’t worry about it.” Ulaz told him. 

Queen Siena excised him and he left after the clarification. 

Lance started getting berated with questions and decided it would be better to just leave as well. He was excused by his mother and he quickly left the awkward situation. 

He had a lot of thinking to do in the next couple of days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SEASON SIX SPOILER WARNING:
> 
>  
> 
> Hello, I took a break yesterday to watch season 6 and let me tell you. I’m destroyed. My endgame ship Lotura was canon for about 10 minutes and the boy, who had me fooled, was actually evil. RIP all Lotor stans (especially me who was praying that he was good, until he ejected the generals) 
> 
>  
> 
> Sorry for those of you who somehow though this would turn into Shance? I love Shance (like lowkey more than Klance) but that will be for another time my loves. Anyways, enjoy! Sorry if this is shorter than normal.


	16. Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance thinks about Keith’s heat

Lance was practically falling asleep at the breakfast table, despite getting constantly elbowed by his fiancé. 

“Lance, why don’t you have another day off. You only have a few lessons left before you’ve completed your schooling, so I think you’re teachers would be okay if you took another day off.” Siena gently told her son. 

“Mmmm. Can I be excused please?” Lance asked, eyes heavy with sleep. 

“Of course, dear.” Lance got up to go, pushing Keith down when he tried to stand up as well.

“Goodbye Emperor Thace, goodbye Ulaz and Shiro. It was a pleasure to have you and I hope we will be seeing each other again very soon.” Lance bowed to his new father-in-law(s) and Shiro. He looked up and everyone was staring at him. 

“Sorry, not you Shiro.” Lance smiled. He totally forgot Shiro was staying during Keith’s heat. That had been said during breakfast, but he barely caught it through the giant cloud of exhaustion hanging over him. 

“It’s our pleasure, don’t let Keith boss you around while we’re gone. He may be bigger but I know you could put him in his place if you needed to.” Thace winked and Lance laughed, walking out of the room after saying goodbyes once more. 

Lance really needed to relax. He had been thinking about whether he should or shouldn’t spend Keith’s heat with him all night. 

On one hand, he was kind of obligated to because of the engagement and he would feel the symptoms anyway. On the other hand, he wasn’t confident enough in himself or the relationship and thought it was too soon. He was leaning more towards no, but who knew what could happen in the next week? 

Lance grabbed a towel, his robe, and a wooden bucket that held soap, shampoo, conditioner, and other assorted bath necessities and headed down to the private hot spring he used. 

He walked outside and into a cave tunnel, the outside surrounded by fragrant flowers, and walked through the darkness. It was fairly short, but smelled like wet rocks, which wasn’t pleasant. 

Lance emerged from the cave into the clearing where the natural hot spring was. There were two different pools, both connected to each other, and varying in deepness. The ground was rock, like the tunnel, but the whole area was surrounded by beautiful trees, plants, flowers, you name it. There were blossoming trees that hung over the deeper pool, flower petals falling into it and making the water fragrant. The sky was open which made Lance’s sessions in the pool very enjoyable, especially at night where he could stare endlessly into the universe. 

The prince took his stuff out of the bucket that held them and dipped the bucket into the water, pouring it over his head and then washing it with the shampoo. He rinsed and repeated, but used conditioner the second time. After scrubbing himself down with soap and rinsing a third time, he could finally slide his whole body into the soothingly hot water. 

Lance sighed, relaxing shoulder deep into the water. He breathed in, admiring the wonderful scent of the area and the beautiful nature surrounding him. He looked at the clouds drifting by and let himself get lost in his own little world. 

He played with the flower petals and traced his arm and leg markings, trying his best not to think about anything stressful. 

He thought about Keith and his relationship and how he was glad Keith was starting to loosen up and joke with him. It was nice, compared to the months of screaming matches, fights, and silent treatments they went through together. 

After a while Lance thought he’d get out, he was getting tired again and didn’t want to drown. He swam to the shallow part of the two connected pools and pulled himself out of the water. He toweled off just enough and put on his robe, throwing a smaller towel onto his head and rubbing his hair with it until it wasn’t dripping wet. He loaded up everything into the bucket and started walking back to his room. 

The spring was relatively close to his room, so he threw on some of his more comfortable clothes and started out again. He wanted to take a lap around the castle so he’d for sure knock out for a while. 

As Lance was wandering, he heard something coming from a room with a cracked open door. Of course, he peeked through the crack. Inside, there was a large white room, with padded floors. Two people were training inside, using swords. Lance found that kind of strange, since Altean guards used staffs during fights. 

Lance soon realized that they weren’t Altean at all. They were two Galrans. Keith and Shiro to be exact. 

Lance watched their match, both of them moving fast, Keith sliding around and dodging Shiro’s moves pretty well, Shiro almost got him a few times, though. Lance saw Keith grab Shiro’s non-prosthetic arm twisting the sword out of it, turning it behind him while Keith slid behind him, and kick his knees in so that Shiro fell on the ground. Keith pointed the point of his sword at the nape of Shiro’s neck pressed his knee into the middle of his back. 

“Damn.” Lance whispered under his breath. 

“I give. I give.” Shiro tapped his hand, Keith getting off of him. 

Lance stared, wide-eyed at Keith, whose chest was heaving as he wiped sweat off of his forehead with his arm. He put his head back and sighed and Lance about lost it. 

He didn’t know he was this attracted to Keith. 

He quickly left when he realized the two were packing up, probably having ended their training session. 

Lance finished his lap around the castle, definitely not thinking about how hot he just found Keith. 

Once he got to his room, he definitely did not see his practically shining markings as he changed into actual clothes. 

Lance hit his pillow and fell asleep pretty quickly, just taking a light nap. 

 

~

 

“Lance, it’s time for dinner!” Keith yelled through the door. Lance woke up, hair disheveled, and eyes half closed. 

He slipped on shoes and ran a hand through his hair, then opened the door. 

“I thought you died in there or something. Do you feel better?”

“Yeah, I took a bath in the hot springs and took a nap so I feel quite a bit better. You look tired too.”

“I got a pretty rough training session in with Shiro, so I’m kind of exhausted.” Keith sighed and Lance tried not to think about what he’d seen. 

“You can use my hot spring after dinner. Nobody goes in there except me. I mean, you can use it whenever it doesn’t really matter, I mean we are engaged after all.” Lance said. 

“Thanks, I will definitely use it.”

The two stayed quiet for a little bit and Keith said something. 

“I wanted to know if you gave next week a thought. I just need to prepare soon so I need to know if I need the proper...stuff for whichever way it goes.” Keith mumbled, averting his eyes. 

“I, I’m sorry but I don’t think I’d be comfortable with being that intimate yet.” Lance’s face was flushed. 

“Oh thank god,” Keith sighed. “No offense to you, but I’m not comfortable with that either. It wouldn’t matter to me during but I’d rather not right now.” 

Lance smiled. He was glad that Keith felt the same way as him. They had time to get to know each other and Lance valued that. 

During dinner Siena and Cyril informed the couple that Keith would still act as kind of a guard for Lance, not for the original purpose, but for general protection. It would be more relaxed and Keith wouldn’t have to dress in his uniform anymore, but he’d still watch out for his fiancé. 

Lance was surprised that he was fine with this, but was glad he’d get more opportunities to get to know Keith more, and Keith felt the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know what to write here or what to title this so yeah.. 
> 
> But enjoy you guys! This is an important chapter!!!!!!!!!


	17. Heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith’s pre-heat

Keith woke up feeling shitty as all hell. He felt sluggish and like he was sick. This could only mean one thing. His pre-heat had started. 

He struggled to get out of bed and throw some clothes on, but he did it. 

It had been about 5 days since Lance and Keith had decided they wouldn’t be together during Keith’s heat.

For the next day Keith would feel like a walking pile of garbage. He hadn’t gotten a full blown pre-heat last time. He did feel a bit off, but nothing out of the ordinary, which made his last heat so much of a surprise, besides being way too early.

When Keith decided that he looked decent enough to be in the eyes of others, he shoved his crown on and left his room. He headed down to Lance’s room, but halfway there heard laughs. 

He peeked around a corner and saw Hunk, Pidge, Lance, and Shiro talking and laughing. He furrowed his brows and slumped over. He stood near them, standing taller then (almost) everyone. 

“Oh hey, Keith! We came in this morning to hang out with Lance for the next couple of days.” Hunk smiled at Keith. Keith couldn’t even manage to smile back out of courtesy, he felt like such garbage. He whipped his head to look at Lance and squinted his eyes toward him. 

“I asked them to come stay with us for the next week for fun.” Lance put emphasis on the last word and glared straight back. 

“What’s up with Mr. Grumpy Pants?” Pidge asked Shiro. 

“Hey, Keith, why are you being a bitch?” Shiro asked playfully but got a fire-fueled glare and claws slightly unsheathing at the smaller Galran’s side. Hunk, Pidge, and especially Lance stood wide-eyed at the aggressive behavior. 

“Okay,” Shiro put his hand on Keith’s shoulder and turned to the trio. “Keith and I are going to take off. We’ll see you guys at lunch time. Have fun at breakfast.” 

Before they could respond Shiro was dragging an angry puffy-haired Keith away. 

Shiro dragged him all the way to the part of the gardens, where the suitors stayed, and shoved him onto one of the couches. 

“Just because you’re in your pre-heat period does not mean you get to act like this. You aren’t a child anymore.” Shiro scolded Keith, who slid down his seat and crossed his arms, pouting. 

“It’s never been this bad.”

“That doesn’t matter! You need to control yourself and stay in a neutral headspace or your heat will come today instead of tomorrow. Do you want that?” 

“No.” Keith turned his head away from Shiro, still pouting. 

“Then get off your ass and go back to sleep. I’ll get you before lunch. You better be acting normal by then.” Shiro waited for Keith to get up and started walking with him to his room. 

Although he had scolded them, Shiro was a little concerned that Keith had shown such aggressive behavior, especially toward him. It was probably because of Lance. This was Keith’s first heat, knowing who his soulmate was, so it was more likely to be more intense. Or at least that’s what Shiro has read somewhere once. 

“Have a good nap, take your crown off.” Shiro said. Keith nodded and walked into his room, the door shutting behind him. 

 

~

 

Lance was talking at the table with his parents and friends when Shiro walked into the room. 

“I apologize for being late, I had to deal with Keith. He’s going to rest until lunch, if that’s alright.” Shiro sighed and plopped himself in the empty seat, next to Lance. 

“That’s fine, I hope he’s doing alright.” Cyril commented. 

“He’ll be fine, although he’ll be off starting tomorrow.” 

“I see.” Siena said. After that, Lance’s parents, Hunk, and Pidge continued their conversation. 

“Why was Keith so aggressive. It was kind of scary.” Lance leaned towards Shiro and whispered. 

“He’s in his pre-heat. He’s never been like that though. I think it’s because it’s his first heat near his soulmate. I’m glad that aggressiveness was t directed at a stranger or an enemy because it could have gotten bad. The fact that he went so far as to unsheathe his claws towards me, someone he sees as family, is crazy rare aggression.” Shiro whispered back. 

Lance nodded and sat back in his chair. Shiro took some food and started to eat, so Lance tuned back in to the other conversation. 

“I’m so happy that you two’ll be staying for the week. You haven’t spent this much time here in decapheebs, Cyril and I missed you so much.” Siena smiled at the Balmeran and Alkarian. 

“It’s our pleasure, Madam.” Hunk beamed. 

“Indeed. We love being here, although Lance can get annoying.” Pidge cackled and so did the rest of the group, except for Lance. 

“Lance? Sweetheart?” Siena looked to her son, who was staring at his empty plate. 

“Lance?” Cyril repeated his wife’s words. 

“Huh?” Lance looked up. 

The group stared at him, having expected him to react, but dismissed it and kept talking. 

The group continued talking, Lance and Shiro paying attention now, for a few more dobashes before deciding to go their seperate ways until lunch. 

Shiro went to go ‘prepare things’ as he said and the trio went to mess around the castle grounds. 

Shiro went to ask guards to let him guard Keith’s room directly. He told them that they should patrol the area anyway. He wasn’t sure what might happen this time, since when Lance and Keith didn’t know about their connection, Lance still tried to get to Keith. He did know that something more intense then that would happen though. 

Next, Shiro headed towards the castle’s medical ward. He been told that the medical staff had created an easy to consume beverage for Keith that would hydrate him and give him all of the nutrients he would need, and he would only have to drink one per day. Shiro picked the pouches up from the doctor, thanked her, and went on his way once again. 

It was a while before lunch, but Keith had been asleep for a few vargas, so he’d be ready to wake up. Shiro kicked the door a few times, and it slid open, a tired looking Keith on the other side. 

“I have some nutritional drinks for you. There are seven of them and you’ll only have to drink one per day. This way you’ll be able to not eat and drink in every clear period and you won’t die,” Shiro smiled, walking into Keith’s room and placing them on the table inside. “So, do you feel better now?”

“I still feel awful but definitely less aggressive and agitated.” Keith yawned and stretched. 

“That’s good. We should finish getting everything ready today, so you’ll be ready.” Shiro told the younger Galra, who agreed. 

That’s pretty much all they did that day, other than going to eat meals. Shiro, and everyone to be frank, noticed that Keith got more aggressive in the presence of Lance. So, Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro kept them away from each other as much as possible.

Everything went smoothly and Shiro took his place in front of Keith’s room once he retired for the night. 

Pidge and Hunk stayed in Lance’s room, like they had done since they were young, and the castle fell silent for the night. 

 

~

 

Lance bolted upright, panting. 

He stumbled out of bed. His head felt like a jumbled mess and he was unbelievably hot. He rushed towards his bathroom, staring at himself in the mirror. 

His hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat, he was flushed red, his facial markings were glowing very brightly, and his eyes eyes were more vividly blue than he had ever seen them. He turned on his faucet and kept splashing his face with water in an attempt to cool down. It didn’t work. 

Lance was breathing very heavily and could feel his heart pounding. 

“Lance, are you okay?” Hunk yawned, looking into the bathroom. 

Lance whipped his body around and almost collapsed from the dizziness. 

“Oh my god!” Hunk ran to his friend, helping him up. Hunk brought Lance to his bed and laid him down. 

“Is something wrong with him?” Pidge asked, concern carved into her expression. She felt his forehead and retracted her hand. “He’s burning up!” 

Hunk started to freak out. It was the middle of the night and they couldn’t exactly take his clothes off to help him cool down. 

Lance groaned, clutching his stomach and curling up. 

“Lance, what’s wrong?” Hunk touched his friend’s shoulder. Lance moved his shoulder out from under Hunk’s hand. Pidge and Hunk stared at their friend. 

Suddenly, Lance got up and practically sprinted off his bed and out of his door. 

“Lance!” Pidge screamed, Hunk and her running after him. 

They chased him, although he hadn’t gotten far. When the two rounded the corner, they saw Shiro gripping Lance’s shoulders in front of a room. 

“Lance, get a hold of yourself! You agreed that you both wanted to stay separated this week!” Shiro was shaking the Altean prince. 

“Shiro, what’s going on?” Hunk asked, looking in panic at Lance. Shiro ignored the Balmeran and grabbed Lance’s head, yelling at him once more. Lance’s eyes became less foggy and he looked around him. 

“Shiro, is this what you guys were talking about?” Lance mumbled. Shiro nodded and Lance stepped away, rubbing his temples. 

“I’ll send someone to watch your room,” Shiro looked at the confused pair standing next to them. “You two, stay with him, he should feel better after tonight but make sure he stays in bed.”

“Got it.”

“Okay.” 

Lance walked over to his friends and ushered them back to his room. 

They got back and Hunk stared at him. Pidge helped him into bed. 

“Lance what the quiznack was that?” Pidge asked. 

“I’ll tell you later.” Lance groaned, still flushed and dripping sweat, but conscious of himself. 

He passed out before his friends could ask him anything else, so they decided to follow suit. They’d just ask him in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t really think I want to get into detail about Keith’s heat. Yet. So, I’ll probably gloss over the week next chapter. 
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! I think it’s a bit longer than normal, but I can’t tell if it’s actually longer or if it just took be 4 hours to write haha. I kept getting distracted. Anyway, love you guys and thank you for reading!


	18. Can You Feel It?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith, Shiro, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge chill and run around the royal grounds of the Altean castle.

Keith woke up and was fully lucid for the first time in 6 days. He ached all over and wanted desperately to stay in bed for the day. He couldn’t, though, and he knew that. 

He dressed in his guard uniform, since that was the most comfortable of the clothes available to him. Well, the clean clothes available to him. He looked at all of the dirty clothing and sheets strewn across his floor in disgust. He really wished he could clean them himself, or at least be somewhere where the people went through the same thing. 

Keith sighed and looked at the clock in his room. It was a couple of dobashes after breakfast had started, so he just headed to the dining hall. 

He yawned and stretched his arms above his head as he neared the door to the dining hall. He opened the door and poked his head in before entering. 

“Keith! Come sit.” Siena smiled at the sight of the young prince. 

He sat next to Shiro, across from Lance, since Hunk and Pidge were on either side of the boy. The fiancés made eye contact and immediately looked away, both flushed all over their faces. 

Keith, in his lucidity, had forgotten about everything throughout the week. Every night he had dreamt about Lance, but it apparently wasn’t a dream. Keith was so confused as to how they had connected over that plane of existence, but it must of been some weird soulmate thing. 

In the dreams the two had talked about everything. They spilled their darkest secrets, the most embarrassing things about themselves, they had talked about how much their instincts were telling them to be with each other, but they weren’t ready for it yet. They had opened their hearts to each other. 

Of course, neither of them thought it was real, but the fact that their first instinct was to look away and blush told them that it was. 

“I’m glad you’re feeling better, Lance. You’ve been a mess this entire week.” Hunk said through a mouthful of food. “You too, Keith. Glad you’re back.” Both nodded in thanks, but felt embarrassed. 

“Shiro’s been working really hard to keep these three in line. He’ll be happy to have more of a break.” Cyril chuckled. 

“They weren’t that bad, they just have a lot more energy.” Shiro smiled, scratching the back of his head. Keith smiled at the other Galra. 

“You feeling okay?” Shiro whispered to Keith, as soon as the table’s conversation had stopped including them. 

“Sore, as usual, my room is...disgusting to say the least and I hope to god I don’t see who cleaned it. I would never be able to face them again.”

“At least word doesn’t get around here about the mess.” Shiro glared off into space. Keith forgot about the time that practically the whole empire knew the state of Shiro’s room after a particularly long and bad heat. Keith patted Shiro on the back sympathetically. 

Shiro went back to eating his food and Keith followed suit, listening to the table’s conversation and occasionally chiming in. 

Once breakfast was finished, the five younger people left the room to go play around outside. Although, Shiro mostly went to supervise and Keith went to accompany Shiro. 

Keith and Lance hadn’t conversed much, but he ran up to the two Galrans at a certain point. 

“Hunk wanted to know if you guys wanted to play a game with us.” Lance smiled. 

“What kind of game?” Shiro asked. 

“A fun game.” 

“Okay.” Shiro accepted for the both of them. Keith followed Lance and Shiro to where Hunk and Pidge were. 

“Sit in a circle.” Pidge instructed. The three completed the five person circle. “Alright, so we’ll pick who goes first, but the person next to you whispers a secret and you have to answer it out loud. Then, you flip this coin and if it lands with the face on top, you have to tell the group the question.” Pidge smirked at Shiro and Keith’s nervous looks. 

Hunk took the task of choosing who to go first. He chose Shiro. 

“Ask Keith a question Shiro.” Lance said. 

Shiro leaned in and whispered, “Did you have any dreams about Lance, and if so were they ‘heat dreams?’” Shiro whispered. Keith glared at Shiro and sighed. 

“Yes and no.” Keith sighed. The group looked at the Galrans in interest. 

“Here’s the coin.” Pidge handed an Altean coin to Keith. 

He flipped it, holding his breath. 

It landed face down and he sighed in relief. 

“Good for you Keith. Now ask Lance a question.” Hunk said. 

“Was it true about what Allura did to you when you were younger? The window thing?” Keith asked. Lance groaned and gave a faint “Yes.” 

He flipped the coin and it landed face up, so he repeated the question. He got asked questions about it but ignored them and asked Pidge a question. They continued this, among other games, until it had gotten dark. A servant had found them and had brought them some drinks and snacks periodically, so they all decided to not go to dinner. 

Shiro told them it was best if they ended the card game they had begun, so that they could get cleaned up before it was too late. The group agreed and started to clean up the cards. 

“This was so much fun, let’s do it again sometime.”Pidge beamed at the group. 

“Yeah, I’m kind of sad that we’re leaving tomorrow morning.” Hunk mumbled sadly. 

“We had fun too.” Shiro said. Keith nodded, smiling and feeling pretty good after having six days of heat. 

The group started walking towards the palace entrance, when Lance put a hand on Keith’s arm. All of them turned around when Keith stopped. 

“Can I talk to you?” Lance asked, looking at the ground. 

“Sure.” Keith responded. Lance dropped his hand. 

“Oh no, he’s leaving us!” Pidge mocked a sorrowful expression, hugging Hunk. 

Lance stuck his tongue out and motioned for Keith to follow him. 

“Let’s follow them.” Shiro said when they got out of earshot. Of course the other two agreed. 

Keith followed Lance through tall reeds. He supposed Lance was bringing him to another secret place. 

They came out on top of a low ledge, a waterfall running off of it and a pool of water about 15 feet below. 

“Why are you still acting like my guard when you’re not.” Lance furrowed his brows. He didn’t really want to say that they had become to close for that kind of relationship. 

“I need to keep you out of all the trouble you get into. You are a spoiled prince after all.” Keith smirked. 

Lance pushed him a little and scoffed. He walked down the side of the ledge, where he stood next to the pool of water. 

He looked around for Keith. He wondered if he got mad about the shove. It wasn’t that hard, but Keith could be moody. 

Just then Keith jumped out of a bush and scared Lance half to death. The prince stumbled back and fell into the pool and popped his head out of the water, his mouth gaping open from the shock of the betrayal. Keith was laughing and Lance swam up to him, pulling him in as well. 

Keith was stunned for a tick, then swam over and picked up Lance under water out of spite, standing up. Lance was laughing, then looked down from his tall position. 

Both his face and body were extremely close to Keith. An electric-like feeling ran through them, starting from where Keith’s arms were, around Lance’s waist. They felt a rush of feelings that they didn’t know they had. Keith saw Lance’s facial markings glow brightly and Lance saw Keith’s ears twitching and pupils dilate. 

Lance’s expression softened, after the initial wave of intense feelings, and he kissed Keith’s cheek. Keith’s eyes widened, but he smiled gently at the warm feeling the light kiss had given him. He set Lance down and held his hand, helping him out of the pool. 

The two held hands, looking into the other’s eyes and just staring. They gradually stepped closer and eventually embraced each other. Keith rubbed his cheek against Lance’s forehead, the two rocking slowly. 

Lance felt Keith’s heart thumping loudly and he was sure Keith could feel his as well. 

They separated and looked into each other’s eyes, once again, sensing a strong connection, that didn’t involve just their instincts, for the first time. They pressed their foreheads together, smiling softly and closing their eyes. 

~

Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge were staring at the couple in awe, from their spot on top of the ledge, behind some bushes. 

“Our friendship is over, Pidge. Lance has replaced us.” Hunk started to tear up and the two started bawling. Shiro joined in with them, crying about how he had lost his little brother. 

“What happened to them fighting all the time? Like I get that they’re engaged but what the quiznack? When did this happen?” Pidge rubbed her eyes. 

“Love is magical.” Shiro smiled, his eyes red. 

Hunk and Pidge helped each other up and Shiro stood up. The three snuck away without being detected, leaving the couple to themselves. 

~

“I guess those dreams connected us more than we thought, huh.” Lance looked at Keith, biting back a small grin. 

“I guess so.” He chuckled. 

“We should probably get going, we don’t want to get sick.” Lance said. Keith agreed and the two started walking. They made their way past the waterfall, up the ledge, and through the reeds. All the while holding hands, yet trying to push each other back into the water. 

 

~

 

The couple finally managed to get to the entrance of the castle, laughing and holding hands, Keith trying to pull Lance up the stairs and into the castle. 

“You’re wet.” Shiro said, startling the couple. 

Lance and Keith saw Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro all standing, now in front of the entrance. 

“We might’ve fallen into some water.” Lance smiled, scrunching his nose at Keith, playfully. 

The three people at the top of the stairs were smirking at the engaged couple.

“Well, it’s good that you’ve decided to like each other. The wedding is in a couple of months after all.” Hunk reminded them. Lance and Keith blushed. 

“We should all go to bed.” Keith said. He and Lance walked to the rest of the group and all five of them walked towards their respective rooms. Keith, Lance, and Shiro were walking together, since their rooms were close. 

“Goodnight.” Keith mumbled softly to Lance, taking his hand in his. 

“G’night.” Lance returned. As he left, he let his hand trail behind him, until his and his fiancé’s hands could no longer reach. 

Keith watched as Lance rounded the corner, then started walking to his room. 

“Damn, What happened in those dreams?” Shiro shook his head, exasperated, while Keith laughed and smiled softly. 

Keith was happy that he was able to have unfiltered conversations with Lance through his dreams. Although they were embarrassing at times, it was worth it if they had subconsciously developed such strong feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I listen to “can you feel the love tonight” from the lion king about 100 times for inspiration of the pivotal scene of this chapter? You bet your ass I did. (If you listen to it you can definitely tell when they realize their feelings). 
> 
> Anyways, hope you enjoy this chapter! I love you all soooooo much!!!


	19. Getting Closer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith talk and hang out

Lance’s eyes fluttered open to the sound of song birds singing. He yawned and stretched and went about his normal morning routine. He washed his face, straightened his hair, changed out of his pajamas and into his day clothes, and placed his crown on his head, adjusting it so that the gem in the center was in the middle of his forehead. 

Lance had just finished when a knock sounded at the door. He pressed the button to open it and saw Keith standing there. 

“...hi?” Lance said, confusion etched into the lines of his face. 

“Your parents didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“I’m acting as your guard until the wedding. It’s apparently been kind of hectic lately, so it’s just an extra security measure.” 

“Things changed for two weeks. Two. Weeks.” Lance held a hand to his forehead and groaned. 

“Well, Your Highness,” Keith smirked. “I will accompany you on your princely endeavors for the next few months.” Lance hit Keith’s arm in mock frustration and the two started walking to breakfast. 

Neither of them brought up what had happened the night before, but they were still acting very close. 

They walked into the dining room, greeted the King and Queen, sat down next to each other, and began to eat. 

A few dobashes later, Hunk and Pidge walked in. Then, a few more dobashes later, Shiro walked in as well. 

“Are you all packed up?” King Cyril asked. He was answered with a variety of “yes’s”, nods, and hums of acknowledgement. 

“Thank you so much for your hospitality. I hope to come back soon to help in any way I can.” Shiro politely said. 

“Yes, thank you so much.” Pidge smiled at her friend’s parents. 

“Let us know if you need any help with wedding preparations. Especially food stuff.” Hunk told the King and Queen.

Siena, Cyril, and Lance all thanked their guests, who began to fill their plates with the Altean food in front of them. 

~

“So, Lance,” Siena started. “I heard that there was quite a few puddles of water around the castle floor.”

Lance stopped chewing his food and slowly looked to his mother. 

“Apparently, they led to your room and down the hallway next to it.” Siena looked up from her plate of food, an eyebrow raised. 

Lance swallowed and quickly glanced at the rest of the table. Three of the seven occupants trying not to smile and/or laugh, and one of the occupants, specifically the one next to Lance, had wide eyes staring at his plate. 

“Uh, sorry?” Lance half-smiled at his mother.

“One of the serving girls almost hurt herself from slipping on those puddles. Do you have any explanation for it?” Siena was still staring into her son’s eyes. 

Lance’s mother seldom showed anger, but when servants or guards almost injure themselves because of something that could be avoided, that anger rose to the surface. 

“I fell into the pool of water next to the waterfall.” 

“And how did that happen, Lance?” Lance looked at Keith for a second, who still looked incredibly interested in his food. 

“K-Keith scared me and I fell.”

“And? How did he get wet?”

“I pulled him in.” Lance whispered. 

“Lance!” Siena growled. Her son cringed. “He is your fiancé! You need to learn to get along!” 

“Oh they get along just fine, Your Highness.” Pidge snickered, eliciting a smack on the shoulder from a glaring Hunk. 

Siena sighed, burying her face in her hands. Cyril gently patted her back. 

“We were just messing around, I’ll apologize to the girl who slipped.” 

“Just tone it down next time.” Cyril told both boys. 

There was silence for a few dobashes but conversations eventually started up again. 

Luckily, the rest of breakfast went smoothly and Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge were able to leave Altea peacefully. 

“Come back before the wedding, please. I’m going to need my best man and maid of honor to help me.”

“Best man?”

“Maid of Honor?” 

Lance beamed at his friends and they all hugged each other tightly, spinning around. 

“I wish I would know what it’d be like to be a best man.” Shiro pouted. 

“Oh, shut up. How could my big brother not be my best man.” Keith hugged Shiro and patted him on the back. 

All of them finished their goodbyes to each other and the Balmeran, Alkarian, and Galran left. 

Keith and Lance just stood around after other people, who had sent the three off as well, had left. 

“We have to go to your lessons, Lance.” Keith told his fiancé. Lance sighed and started walking to the part of the castle where his instructors were waiting for him. 

The couple made small talk on the way over, touching lightly on the subject of the previous night. 

“I-I’m happy that it’s not just obligation anymore.” Lance mumbled. 

“Me too. It’s not a textbook case, but I think our relationship is very,” Keith paused. “Very...us.” 

“Having feelings but still finding each other indescribably annoying. Yup, that sounds like us.” Lance laughed. Keith rolled his eyes but smiled anyway. 

 

~

 

Lance had finished his evening lessons, relishing in the fact that he only had around two weeks left until they were completely over. 

Keith had left halfway through Lance’s last lesson, which left Lance guessing as to where Keith had gone. He hadn’t gone to the kitchens for a snack, since they had had dinner right before Lance’s final lesson. He might’ve been in his room resting, but Lance doubted it. Keith wasn’t one for cat naps, even though Lance was convinced he was just a giant cat. 

He decided not to worry about it, instead, opting for a soak in the hot spring. 

Lance left his hair product, just grabbing some herbal soap for relaxation purposes. He had taken a shower earlier and didn’t need to wash his hair again. 

He placed his crown in its box and undressed, throwing on his robe and tying it. He grabbed a towel to dry his hair, threw on his slippers, and set off. 

He walked the short distance to the private outside area that led to his hot spring. He hummed as he walked down the musty tunnel and emerged. Lance stopped abruptly, seeing Keith sitting neck deep in the steaming water. 

The two locked eyes, and stared for a few ticks. 

“You said I could use it, so I took advantage of the offer.” Keith mumbled. 

“I know.” Lance continued staring at the Galran occupying the deeper pool. 

After a dobash or two, Lance set down his soap and towel near the shallow pool. 

“Wh-“

“I can’t use my own hot spring, now?” Lance looked over his shoulder, stepping out of his slippers and starting to untie his robe. 

“But-your-“

“Then close your eyes!” Lance watched as Keith put his hands over his eyes. He turned his head back around and took off his robe, folding it and putting it next to his other stuff. 

He stepped into the shallower pool and made his way into the deeper section of it. 

“Alright, I’m under the water.” Lance was blushing, although he wish he could have stayed cool in this situation. Keith peeked between his fingers before completely pulling his hands off of his face. 

“I thought that Alteans didn’t show their markings to people that they weren’t...active with?” Keith cringed slightly. 

“You can’t really see through the steam. Also, it’ll be like that sooner or later, and you’ve technically seen them before. That was probably one of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever done.” Lance muttered. 

Keith’s whole face immediately got darker. Lance went under water before popping up a second later, slicking his hair back with his hand. Keith saw the beautiful blue swirls that climbed up Lance’s thin, dark arm. He looked away quickly. 

The two started talking to each other after the initial embarrassment died out. They learned even more about each other and even had an argument over the best type of character in Monsters and Mana. Lance said thief, Keith said sorcerer. They promised to play together soon, only to prove which type of character was better of course. 

After some time, Lance started to feel fatigued. 

“I should probably get out.” He yawned. 

“Me too.” Keith made his way to the shallow pool and stood up. Lance blushed and looked away. 

“Can you turn around and hand me my robe?”

“Ugh, fine.” Keith rolled his eyes and got out, picking up Lance’s robe and holding it behind himself. 

Lance swam over to the connecting pool and slid out of the hot water. He took the robe and fastened it. 

“Okay you’re good.”

Keith walked over and got his own towel. Lance was blushing and trying not to look down. 

Although he didn’t want to acknowledge it, he had seen Keith’s dick. 

“What’s wrong with you?” Keith asked, wrapping the towel around his waist. 

“Nothing. Just. Not used to nudity.” Lance averted his gaze from Keith. 

“Ohoho...” Keith smirked. “I guess I didn’t take into account that you’ve probably never seen another person naked before. I’m used to it, but I guess you got nervous seeing me nude.”

“It’s-You’re just...different than what I thought you’d be.” Lance was blushing harder than before at this point. 

“Impressed?” Keith raised an eyebrow, earning a punch in the arm. 

“I. Am. Not.” Lance hissed through gritted teeth. He grabbed his stuff and stomped all the way into the area before the tunnel. 

“It was a joke Lance. Relax.” Keith grumbled. 

“Whatever. See you tomorrow, jerk.”

Keith stuck his tongue out and Lance scrunched up his face. They ended up smiling, but they didn’t say anything else. Just going their separate ways for the night instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry last chapter was kind of bad lol, hope this one is a little better :)


	20. The Nunvil Crisis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Celebration and flashbacks

“Keith!” Lance yelled, skidding around the corner, into the lounge area where Keith was sitting, eating a snack. 

Keith whipped his head around at the loud voice and footsteps. Lance was running down the few stairs that dipped into the square indent in the ground where the couches, tables, and chairs were. He plopped right next to his fiancé holding a large clay bottle and two clay cups. 

“I’m done with my lessons and I wanted to celebrate, so I stole this from the kitchens.” Lance was smiling and breathing heavily, from his sprint across the castle. 

“What exactly did you steal?” Keith wished he could see into the large bottle. 

“Nunvil.” 

“Nunvil?”

“It’s crazy strong and it’s delicious. Coran always has some, he’s let me try it a few times too.”

Before Keith could even process, Lance had uncorked the bottle and started pouring the pungent drink into the two cups. 

“I really shouldn’t be drinking, I’m still your guard and I’d be in huge trouble if I were drinking on duty.” Keith tried to refuse the glass being shoved at him, but to no avail. 

“Who cares? We’ll just drink a little so that we don’t get caught.” Lance tapped his glass to Keith’s and drank the pink liquid in one swallow. 

Keith stared, but kicked back his drink as well, coughing after it had slid down his throat. 

“Oh my god, is this acid?” He was practically choking, while Lance cackled maniacally. Keith felt like his throat was burning and he could feel the harsh liquor tearing at the lining of his stomach. 

“I probably should’ve told you how bad it was the first time. Try another glass, it’ll be better, I promise.” Lance filled up his fiancé’s glass, then his own. The prince kicked back his second glass, feeling his cheeks beginning to flush from the alcohol. 

He watched Keith tentatively sip the drink, then down the glass afterwards. 

“I told you it gets better!” Lance playfully nudged Keith’s arm and poured both of them a third glass. 

Keith wasn’t really feeling it, so he thought it’d be alright to drink a little bit more. Maybe nunvil hit Alteans and Galrans differently, after all. 

The two started talking about the stress of the past two weeks, although both secretly thought of the moments that had made their feeling grow stronger. 

~

Keith walked into the flower patch, seeing Lance sitting down, plucking flowers and setting them in front of him. 

“Are you alright? You just kind of left after your lesson.” The Galran sat near the prince. 

“I’m just really stressed. I’m getting tested on pretty much everything I’ve ever learned and my instructors are being very harsh on me.” Lance sighed. “I can’t wait for it to be over.”

“Well, if it makes you feel better, I had to be ‘broken’ by being put through different physical challenges to be able to, as my instructor put it, learn properly and to appreciate the knowledge.” Keith could remember his instructor with her pointer, which she used to hit him when he would answer wrong, or the weights he’d have to hold, or the intense heat and cold he’d have to work through. 

“That’s awful, I feel bad for complaining now.” Lance chuckled. 

“It only lasted for the first decapheeb of my lessons, after that it got a lot better. That first year was hell, though.” Keith said. “Anyways, what are you doing?” The Galran looked to the pile of flowers that were getting linked to each other one by one. 

“Allura taught me how to make flower chains when we were younger, it was very relaxing and it brings back good memories, so I make them when I feel bad.”

“Oh. What do you do with them?” 

“You wear them, duh.” Lance rolled his eyes as he connected the last couple of flower stems to each other, forming a circle. 

The Altean held up his delicate masterpiece, smiling at his work. 

“That’s beautiful.” Keith said, staring at the mic of pink and green that went in a continuous loop. 

“You can have it, then.” Lance placed the chain on top of Keith’s head, then stood up. 

“Thanks.” Keith smiled to himself, a warm feeling spreading through his chest. He got up and followed Lance. 

Keith forgot about the flower crown until late into the evening, when the Queen mentioned how he was ‘wearing a different crown than the one he had brought with him.’

Although he was slightly embarrassed, he still felt happy about the gift Lance had given him, genuinely given him. No jokes, snide remarks, or coverup statements. 

~

The two had downed their fourth glass by that time, and they were both intoxicated. Keith hadn’t been hit with the strength of the nunvil until after his third glass, but it had hit hard. 

The two were sharing different stories about their childhood and giggling constantly. 

“I cannot believe that you got every single palace guard to throw a surprise party for your parents, a party that they never asked for and didn’t want at all.” Keith sighed. 

“Well excuse me mister ‘I punched a guy in the eye, blinding him, because you heard him talking badly about Shiro.’” Lance mocked Keith’s voice. 

“In my defense, it was some pretty nasty stuff and I was already pissed.” 

“At least you stick up for those that you love, I never had anyone to defend against all the nasty stuff said about me. I can’t retaliate because I’m supposed to act a certain way, but I guess I ended up getting over it.”

“I’ll protect you, Lance.” Keith said. 

Lance looked to the large Galran next to him, whose face was quite close. They stared at each other for a while, then cracked up giggling before they could touch lips. 

“We’ve kissed how many times?” Lance cackled. 

“Let me think: the hallway, the bridge, outside of your bedroom, outside of my bedroom-“ Keith got cut off by a blushing and giggling Lance covering his mouth. 

“My parents don’t want us doing anything more, even if they were okay with the idea of me spending your heat with you, Alteans aren’t supposed to do anything until after they are married.”

“Well that sucks, doesn’t it.” Keith said. The nunvil’s magic had removed him from any idea of embarrassment, especially after the half glass he had been sipping on. 

“It kind of does. I mean I’d be totally down to mess around, but my parents wouldn’t be okay with it.” Lance sulked. Keith pouted. 

Lance set his cup down and grabbed Keith’s out of his hand, setting it down as well. He then took hold of Keith’s arm and started dragging his much larger fiancé up the three stairs, to get out of the lounge area. 

“What are you doing?” Keith asked, wobbling drunkenly as he tried to keep up with Lance. 

“What they don’t know doesn’t hurt them.” Lance told his fiancé. Keith’s ears perked up and both of them picked up the pace, towards Lance’s room. 

The two stopped periodically to avoid guards and palace staff, all the while stealing kisses and giggling. 

~

“Keith, I think I like you more than I previously thought.” Lance whispered. Keith turned his head so that we was looking at Lance instead of the stars. 

The two had been laying in the grass, staring at the stars, and listening to the waterfall pour into the pool of water they were near. 

They had come back to that spot several times to just talk or stargaze, holding hands and discussing different astrological patterns. They had bonded a lot during those moments and cherished them greatly, although neither of them told the other that. 

“What do you mean?” Keith inquired. 

“I mean,” Lance turned his head to look back at Keith. “I just feel so warm and happy and I thought it was just when we were having fun or kissing or whatever but I feel so many good feeling just laying here and looking into the universe with you, or making flower chains, or even when we’re just walking different places together.” 

“I feel the same, to be honest. I mean I love having fun with you, but I feel so connected to you when we’re just...together? I guess.” Keith’s lips twitched as he stared into his fiancé’s beautiful blue eyes. 

Lance sighed in contentment. He sat up, followed by Keith, and the two gently pressed their lips together. 

They kissed for a while, then just sat with their foreheads pressed together for a while, talking about the different things they liked doing together. 

Playing M&M, particularly laughing about Keith’s character Thunderstorm Darkness (Lance added that), learning things about each other, sharing family stories, gathering knowledge about each other’s culture, and so many other things. 

They had almost fallen asleep just talking to each other, but had gotten up before that happened. 

~

Keith pressed Lance up against the door to Lance’s room and was kissing him with an aggressive passion that he didn’t know he had. 

Lance finally got his door to open and they practically fell into the large room. Lance led Keith to his bed and pushed him down to a sitting position. Lance straddled Keith’s lap, finding the zipper on his uniform and beginning to pull it down. 

“Lance- wait.” Keith gently pushed his fiancé back. “Are you sure you want to do this, we’re both super drunk and could regret it.” Keith watched Lance think. 

“I want to do this. Do you?” Lance looked into the other’s eyes. 

“I’m sure.”

Those two words were all it took for the two to start practically ripping each other’s clothes off. Keith actually tore Lance’s shirt, but it didn’t really matter to them at that point. 

Keith flipped over, putting Lance on his back. He slid off Lance’s pants and underwear and stared at the beautiful blue markings curling around different parts of the tanned skin. They were glowing slightly, along with the blue crescents sitting beneath the Altean’s eyes. 

“You’re so beautiful.” Keith breathed out. He was in absolute awe of the beauty before him. 

“Don’t you want to get into bed with this beauty?” Lance smirked, watching as Keith finished taking off his uniform. 

Both were completely naked, but the alcohol had taken away the embarrassment they would have felt. Lance, though, still felt conscious of his markings being seen. 

Keith moved Lance so that his head was on his pillows. When he was sure of Lance’s comfort, Keith leaned over and began kissing around his face and his neck. 

Lance’s breath was starting to pick up in speed, and Keith could feel his rapid heartbeat through his neck. 

Keith could feel his instincts begin to push their way through, as he began to nibble on Lance’s neck, Galrans tended to bite their mate as a way to mark them. Keith was prepared to stop but heard Lance moan when he bit a little harder near the base of his neck. He took that as a green light. 

After he had made a decent amount of bite and kiss marks, Keith began to move lower with his kisses and love bites. He inched his way all the way down to the Altean’s defined hip bone. Keith began to suck dark purple marks all over Lance’s hips and thighs, listening to all the small squeaks and gasps that came from him. He made his way over to Lance’s erect dick and began licking at it.

“Oh my god.” Lance’s hand shot to Keith’s hair, gripping it and groaning as he was sucked off. 

Keith worked his way around the tip, licking and sucking, then moved downwards. He worked his way until he was swallowing the entirety of Lance’s length. The whole time, Lance was groaning and gasping and tightening his grip on Keith’s hair, but Keith didn’t mind at all. 

“I’m gonna cum-“ Lance gasped as he felt his lower half buck. He came and his legs and hips twitched rather violently. He opened his eyes to see Keith slipping off his dick. 

“Oh my god, Keith spit that out!” He felt his face heat up, the affects of the nunvil still there but lessening. 

He was about to say something again, in case Keith hadn’t heard him, but the Galran propped Lance’s hips up. He spit out Lance’s cum onto his hole and Lance almost screamed from embarrassment. 

“You didn’t have any lubricant.” Keith stated nonchalantly. Lance threw his arm over his face, to hide himself. 

Keith continued, using a finger to gently circle the ring of muscles before pushing the digit in. 

Lance gasped. 

“Does it hurt? Do i need to stop?” Keith asked. 

“No, just a weird feeling. Keep going.” Keith followed instructions and started the gently pump his finger in and out, after a while he added a second, and then a third, constantly asking Lance if he was comfortable. Lance always said yes. 

“I think you’re okay, can I put it in?” Keith felt his face flush at his own statement. Lance nodded, eyes tightly closed from the sensation happening in his lower half. 

Keith pulled Lance’s hips closer to his dick and carefully began to insert himself into Lance. The prince groaned and started breathing heavily. 

“Breathe, Lance.” Keith kept slowly pushing in and gently rubbed his partner’s chest. Lance began to control his breathing, and took one arm off his face and grabbed onto Keith’s bicep, gripping tightly. Keith had pushed all the way, and was breathing heavily as well. 

“Tell me when you want me to move.” He told Lance, who nodded and continued breathing. 

After a dobash or two, Lance tapped Keith’s arm. 

“You can move.” He said. 

Keith pulled out half way and snapped his hips forward, causing a moan to escape from Lance. Keith smiled at the response. He continued to pull out and snap back in, earning a chorus of groans, pants, moans, and gasps from the Altean beneath him. 

“Can we change positions really quick?” Keith panted. 

“Sure, whatever.” Lance moaned out. Keith pulled out and carefully moved Lance into his lap. 

“Wha-?” Lance couldn’t finish his thought before Keith pushed back into him. The prince bit his lip and put his forehead against the Galran’s shoulder. 

Keith continued moving in and out of his fiancé. Lance leaned back at one point and when Keith slammed back into him he almost screamed.  
Keith saw Lance’s marking brightly glow, and he stopped moving. 

“What was that?” Keith asked.

“I don’t know but it felt so good.” Lance stared into his partner’s eyes and smirked. “Do it again, please.” 

Keith smirked back and angled himself so that when he pushed into Lance, he hit his sweet spot every time. Pretty quickly, both of them were on the edge, and Lance started to touch himself. 

After another couple of dobashes, they were groaning as they spilled cum. Lance onto Keith’s stomach and Keith into Lance. 

Keith pulled out and they collapsed next to each other. 

“Oh my god, I can’t believe we did that.” Keith mumbled. “I’m going to get in so much trouble.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.” Lance winked, trying to crawl under the covers. 

“I should go.”

“Stay here, please.” Lance held Keith’s hands and peeled open the sheets on his bed. He threw off the top, cum-stained blanket and rugged Keith in with him. 

“Goodnight, Lance.” Keith kissed his fiancé’s forehead. 

“G’night, Keith.” Lance curled up to the warm, fluffy Galran and dozed off to the sound of his heartbeat. 

 

~

 

Keith’s eyes shot open and he sat up. He didn’t know where he was for a minute, but remembered. He rubbed his head, a dull ache present right behind his eyes. 

“Why the hell are you up so early?” Lance rubbed his eyes, sitting up. He was clearly hung over as well. 

“It’s not early. Breakfast started half a varga ago.”

“Oh quiznack.” Lance threw off the sheets and ran to his dresser, grabbing a pair of pants and underwear. He threw them on and grabbed his robe, tying it around him. Keith followed suit, slipping into his underwear from the previous night and his uniform. 

“Come on.” Keith started walking out of the room, Lance right behind him. They rushed towards the dining hall and burst through the doors. 

“Good morning boys. Did you two sleep in too late?” Siena smiled as they sat down and began to plate their breakfast. 

“Yup. Keith woke me up late and pretty abruptly, sorry I’m a mess mother.” Lance apologized. 

“Oh don’t worr-“ Siena dripped her fork. Cyril, Lance, and Keith all looked at her. 

She looked furious. 

“Lance, darling,” Siena bit. “What happened to your neck?”

Keith looked at Lance’s neck, where bite marks and hickeys were on full display. 

“We- I mean I-“

“We?” She raised her voice, turning her gaze to Keith. 

The two boys were stunned silent, not wanting to admit that they had drunkenly, but consensually, screwed each other into oblivion last night. 

“I told you to not have sex until after your wedding!” Siena hissed. “And you, Keith, are supposed to be acting as his guard, not messing around with him!”

“Siena, dear,” Cyril touched his wife’s arm gently. “Galrans are often sexually active with their mates even before they’re engaged. Give them some slack.” 

“Fine. But Lance you’re not allowed to drink half a bottle of nunvil ever again.” 

Lance froze at that information, but relaxed when he realized that his mother was decompressing. He pulled his robe up and tightened it. 

Keith and Lance shared a smile after their fear died down. They held hands for the rest of breakfast and ate in peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every time I try to italicize shit it keeps glitching, so sorry about the non destinction of the flashbacks. 
> 
> Hope you like the chapter, sorry if the smut is cringe, love you guys! <3
> 
> HOLY SHIET THIS IS LIKE A 4K WORD CHAPTER ODKZNDJSJDK


	21. The Galran Empire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance, his parents, and Keith take a trip to Keith’s home planet.

Lance slurped down some juice, sitting in the lounge area of the Royal Altean travel ship while Keith slept with his head in his fiancé’s lap. 

Lance, his parents, and Keith were on their way to Keith’s home planet where they would stay for a few quintents. The trip only took about six vargas, and they were almost to their destination. 

“Keith, wake up.” Lance said. Keith groaned and nuzzled deeper into Lance’s lap. The Altean sighed and pushed Keith off of his lap and onto the ground. 

“What the hell?” Keith growled. 

“You weren’t getting up when I was being nice so I did what I knew would work.” Lance shrugged and crossed his legs. He knew Keith was probably grumpy about it, but he would get over it soon enough. 

Keith got up, grumbling, and plopped down next to Lance.

“Im not ready to go back.” Keith sighed. He intertwined his fingers with Lance’s. 

“Why? I thought you’d be happy to go back.”

“My instincts are probably going to shine through and if that happens I’ll get super protective and aggressive. Unmated Galrans, which makes up most of the younger side of the military and who’ll be greeting us, will try to get with anything beautiful. Even if I’m their prince, they’ll still make comments and you know how I respond to that, even without the people being Galra.”

“You think I’m beautiful?” Lance smirked, Keith rolled his eyes. “Seriously though, it’s alright. I don’t mind if your more...protective.”

“I don’t think you understand the intensity.” Keith muttered. 

Before Lance could ask him to repeat what he said, they were landing. 

“Boys, go grab your luggage. Keith, I’m glad to see you’ve changed.” Siena said, taking her and Cyril’s luggage from a compartment in the wall. 

Keith had begrudgingly changed from his guard uniform into royal Galran attire. He didn’t want to, at all, but Lance told him that he liked it, and that was all Keith needed to be coerced. That and a few kisses. 

“We’ll meet you outside, then.” Siena turned and walked out as Keith and Lance were grabbing their own luggage from a different compartment. 

They walked outside and were met by Thace and Ulaz. A few servants took the bags and carried them off while everyone was greeting each other. 

“Once we get out of the hangar, there will be a lot of people greeting us, just so you’re aware. We’ll introduce you and then we’ll go and have a meal.” Ulaz informed the Alteans and Keith. Everyone acknowledged the statement and the group set off. 

Keith and Lance were at the back as the six walked out of the hangar, through a hallway, and through large double doors that opened into a foyer. There were a lot of Galrans standing around and buzzing about the Alteans, especially Lance, as the three pairs walked towards a set of three thrones. 

Keith heard a few inappropriate comments, directed at Lance, from soldiers who were standing near the edge of the aisle and he just about snapped. He glared daggers at them, claws unsheathing as he pulled Lance closer to him by his waist. He relished in the fact that they not only shut up immediately, but looked relatively intimidated. 

Lance felt Keith’s unease and got as close to him as possible, while walking, to comfort him. 

The group got to the front of the throne room and Thace quieted the crowd. 

“Hello, everyone! I’m sure you’ve heard the news, but Keith, my heir, has found his soulmate and will be wed to him in a few months.” The crowds cheered for their prince before being quieted again. “Keith would you please introduce your fiancé?” Thace whispered to his son. Keith nodded and stepped forward, arm still wrapped protectively around Lance. 

“This is Prince Lance of Altea, my fiancé and your future prince. He is the heir to the Altean throne, meaning that when we take over from our predecessors, Altea and the Galran Empire will be strongly united.” Keith nudged Lance, signaling for him to say something. 

“I hope that you all will except me, despite me not being Galra. I am truly looking forward to uniting our kingdoms in the future, and wish that you will share this enthusiasm with my fiancé and I.” Lance bowed his head politely as the crowd clapped and cheered. 

He and Keith stepped back as Siena and Cyril were introduced. Lance spotted Shiro near the front of the crowd and the two locked eyes. Shiro smiled and nodded politely. 

Pretty quickly, the crowd had been dismissed and the two royal families were being escorted out of the throne room and down several long, purple hallways until they got to the private dining hall. 

“That went very well, it seems that everybody quite liked you all.” Thace beamed at the Alteans. The group took their seats around the table and started chatting. 

“I felt so small walking down that aisle.” Siena laughed. 

“I’m definitely not used to being the short one either. We’re both quite tall by Altean standards.” Cyril said. The group chuckled. 

“What did you think, Lance?” Ulaz asked. 

“I thought I received quite a warm welcome. I didn’t expect it since we’re an interspecies couple, but I’m happy that I was accepted.” 

“Thats good to hear. Keith, what did you think?”

“It went well, I guess.” 

“You guess?” Thace piped up. 

“I just had to warn a few people who were making some comments. New recruits, by the look of them, but they shut up pretty quickly.”

“So that’s why you were glued to Lance the whole time.” Cyril commented. “Galrans sure are possessive!”

“Indeed we are.” Thace said. 

Servants brought in their meals and the two royal families ate happily and talked about various things; from the upcoming wedding to their different cultural customs. The Alteans learned of an intense Royal Galran wedding tradition that involved a set of extremely old knives. It was undecided whether that would be done during Keith and Lance’s ceremony. 

 

~

 

After dinner, Lance’s parents, Thace, and Ulaz decided to go tour the palace. 

“Why don’t you boys get some rest,” Ulaz told Lance and Keith. “Keith, Lance’s room is the one across the hall from yours.”

“Okay. Goodnight everyone.” Keith nodded. Lance nodded as well and everyone went their separate ways. 

Keith and Lance walked westward down several dark hallways, lit with glowing purple lights. 

“Your home is very,” Lance paused. “It’s very you.” 

“What does that even mean?”

“All I’m saying is that if you grow up in a dark and gloomy place, it apparently impacts your personality.” Keith glared and smacked Lance’s arm. 

“Whatever.”

“See! You’re pouting!” Lance laughed. Keith was still unimpressed but was trying to not prove Lance right. 

As they neared the hall where their rooms were, Keith heard a conversation. He stopped next to a wall, putting a hand in front of Lance, stopping him as well. He perked his ears up and tuned in. 

“Poor Prince Lance, he must be so lonely. Prince Keith doesn’t even bother to stay in the same room as him.” A guard said. 

“I’d definitely make him much less lonely, given the opportunity. He’s such a hot piece of ass.” The two guards laughed and said a number of other vulgar things. 

Keith took hold of Lance’s arms and spun him, pinning him against the wall. 

“Kei-“ Lance got cut off by a rather passionate kiss from his fiancé. He got into it and wrapped his arms around Keith’s shoulders. Keith grabbed Lance’s thighs and picked him up, still pinning him against the wall. Lance wrapped his legs around Keith and pulled away after another minute. 

“What the hell, Keith? We’re not fucking in the hallway!” Lance whispered. 

“I know. Just give me a second.” Keith mumbled as he started to rub his face on Lance’s neck. He bit the exposed part, creating a deep mark and causing Lance to moan. Keith hushed Lance and continued to rub his cheeks on his partner. 

After a few more seconds, Keith let Lance down. He perked his ears up and still heard the same guards chatting with each other. They were still talking about Lance, and Keith did everything in his power to not bolt over and cause a scene. 

“Are you okay?” Lance asked, seeing Keith’s ears perked up and his brows furrowed. 

“Some people are still talking shit, so I had to turn it up a notch. Sorry.” Keith took hold of Lance’s hand and walked down the rest of the hall and rounded the corner. 

The two guards, who had apparently been assigned to patrol the hall, almost snapped their necks looking over at the two princes. 

“G-good evening Your Highness.” One of them stuttered out. They both looked slightly terrified. 

“Good evening. I hope that the two of you haven’t been too terribly bored standing here.” The guards shook their heads. “I thought I heard some interesting conversations, so I suppose not.” Keith grinned at the looks of horror on the two’s faces. 

“We didn’t mean-“ 

“Oh don’t worry about it.” Keith patted one of the guard’s backs. “Really.” He bit, digging his claws deep into his shoulder. 

The guard winced in pain and Keith took his hand away. 

“I trust that they’ll be no more of that kind of conversation?”

“No, Your Highness. We are so terribly sorry. Please forgive us.” The guard, whose shoulder was now bleeding slightly, pleaded. Keith simply glared down at the two of them. 

“Come on, Lance.” Keith held his fiancé’s hand and walked him into the room that had been prepared for him. 

As Lance walked by, both guards got very rigid. The Altean Prince looked at them and they stared wide-eyed at his neck, particularly the bitten part. 

The two fiancé’s walked into Lance’s room and closed the door. 

“Okay. What the actual fuck was that? What happened? Did you seriously put holes in that guy’s shoulder?” Lance plopped himself on a chair, across from where Keith was standing. 

“I heard them saying things about you. How you must be lonely because we aren’t in the same room, and how they’d make you ‘less lonely’. Or that you were a ‘nice piece of ass’ and how they’d like to fuck you until you couldn’t walk.” 

“Hmm. Interesting. Do you, by any chance, have a gun laying around? I’m an excellent shot and I’d love to utilize my skills.” Lance smiled, eye twitching. 

“I’d love to give you one but, unfortunately, we can’t seriously harm anyone unless they actually touch you.” Lance let out a sigh of annoyance at the statement. “Nobody will touch you, or probably make any more comments anyways. I’ve marked you.”

“I’m sorry, you what?” Lance stood up, clearly angry. 

“Not like an object or anything. It’s not like that. It’s more of a ‘this person is my mate and if you touch them you’ll die’ kind of mark. It’s just an aggressive scent marking plus a bite mark. It’s extremely possessive behavior, but it’ll work.” 

“Sounds like I’m your property.” Lance grumbled. 

“If you want, you can bite me. I don’t particularly care.” Keith plopped down onto a sofa. 

“Okay.” Lance said. He walked over and bent down and bit Keith’s neck, hard before the other had any time to react. 

“Ow, What the fuck?” Keith looked up at Lance. 

“You told me it was okay.”

“That’s not-ugh.” Keith rubbed his eyes in frustration. “It’s supposed to be intimate. If it wasn’t I wouldn’t have practically dry humped you against the wall.” 

Lance sighed, staring at his fiancé for a moment before climbing on top of his lap, resting his arms around the other’s neck. 

“Sorry.” He said, resting his forehead against Keith’s. 

“It’s fine. It’s not like it’s any different, I guess.”

“Want me to make it up to you?” Lance inquired. 

“And how are you going to do that?” Keith pulled back to look at the other. Lance smirked and slipped off of Keith’s lap, settling in between his legs, he looked up, a shit eating grin plastered on his face. 

“Hooooooly quiznack.” Keith gasped as his pants were unbuckled and unzipped. 

Lance tugged his partner’s underwear and pants down. Keith’s dick was already hardening. 

“Lance. Seriously. Don’t.” Keith held a hand up to his mouth. Lance ignored him and began to lick and suck on the tip of Keith’s dick. 

Once it was fully erect, Lance began making his way all the way down the shaft. Keith groaned and threw his head back. 

“Holy shit, Lance. Do you not have a gag reflex?” Keith said. 

Lance took his mouth completely off, having made it all the way down to the base. 

“What’s a gag reflex?”

“Alteans are amazing creatures.” 

Lance raised an eyebrow, but continued sucking off the enormous Galran. 

After a minute or two, Keith came. Lance popped off his dick and looked up. Keith’s eyes widened as he saw Lance swallow. 

“OH MY GOD! Why did you swallow!?” Keith was shocked. 

“Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do? I mean I guess you used my cum as lube but don’t you usually swallow?”

“No? No, you don’t? You should have spit it out?”

“Oh. Oh well I guess.” Lance shrugged. Keith stood up and pulled up his pants, exasperated. 

“I should really go, sorry.” Keith helped Lance up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. 

“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Lance said. 

Keith left the room, noticing that there were two different guards, now posted outside of the rooms. They quickly averted their eyes, a good sign in Keith’s mind. He made his way into his own room and pretty quickly fell asleep after he readied himself for bed. 

 

~

 

The next morning, when Lance and Keith made their way to breakfast, Keith was almost instantly berated with questions from his father. 

“Keith, why have you decided to mark Lance? And does it have anything to do with the injured guard that was supposed to be posted in your guys’ hall?”

“Well, uh,” Keith picked at his food with his fork. “You see, the two guards that were stationed there were talking very badly about Lance and I, and were saying some very vulgar things. So...“

“So?”

“So I decided to scent mark him and bite him.” Keith mumbled. 

“Mhmm. And? Why do you have a bite mark?”

“He was upset that he was the only marked one. It’s for the best, honestly father. There is too much competitiveness and it won’t stop until after the wedding so I might as well. You scent mark Ulaz to keep others away, why’s that different?.” 

Ulaz started choking on the tea he was sipping and Thace’s face immediately flushed. Siena and Cyril were very quiet all of a sudden, and so was Lance. 

“Th-it’s just different!” Thace exclaimed. 

“I guess I’ll let it pass. You did it for a good enough reason. Just remember to control the aggression, you should be above puncturing people-“

“But-“

“-even if they are saying inappropriate things. You know you aren’t supposed to show that type of aggression unless it’s directly said to Lance.” Thace finished. 

Keith slouched in his chair, pouting and picking at his food. 

“Fine.” He groaned. 

The Alteans were still quiet, but entered the conversation soon after. 

Keith really wanted to go back to Altea already.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys like the chapter! If you want to see anything wedding-wise let me know! Love you all <3


	22. The Forest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith the Galran forest

Keith peeked out of his door cautiously. He looked left and right down the hallway before crossing it. He quickly snuck into his fiancé’s room and closed the door quietly. 

“Lance.” He whispered from beside the bed. 

Lance stirred and just about had a heart attack. A pair of glowing yellow eyes set in a dark mass was standing right next to him, anyone would freak out. 

“Quiznack, Keith. It’s like the middle of the night.” Lance sat up and turned on the light on the nightstand. “Why were your eyes glowing like that? Also, why did you break into my room?”

“Galran eyes glow in complete darkness and I want you to come with me.” Keith helped Lance out of the bed and started to pull him out of the room. Lance was confused and tired but Keith seemed set on taking him somewhere. 

The two snuck around the castle, hiding from guards and the robotic sentries until they had made their way out of the castle and into the forest behind the castle. 

“I wanted you to see the forest at night.” Keith said, turning to look at his fiancé. 

“How am I supposed to ‘see’ if the forest is so dark?” Lance asked. 

“Follow me.” Keith smiled. He started walking into the forest, Lance close behind. 

He could barely see Keith in front of him when, all of a sudden, things started to light up. The light started from where the two were stepping and radiated outward. 

Lance watched in awe as the ground, the plants, small insects and lizards, the trees, everything, started to light up beautifully around him. He cautiously touched a blue flower and watched as it started to glow brilliantly. 

Lance stood and just stared around him. He had never been surrounded by such beauty, and he never wanted to leave it. 

“Come.” Keith whispered to Lance before taking off again. Lance was trying his best to keep up, but Keith’s fast, long strides were a tough match. 

Lance caught up to Keith, who was looking into a gently flowing stream with glowing flowers floating atop it, and glowing rocks on the bottom. The stream was fairly wide and deep and looked very inviting. 

Lance noticed that Keith had started taking off his clothing, except for his underwear. 

“What are you doing?” Lance was taken aback. 

“I’m not going to swim with my clothes on.” Keith retorted. 

“Swim?” 

“Yes, I want to take you somewhere and we need to swim to get there. If you want to swim in your clothes, be my guest.” Keith stood in his underwear, looking at his partner. 

Lance sighed and begun stripping, until he reached his underwear, which he kept on. Keith smiled and dove into the deep stream. 

“Come on. It’s warm, don’t worry.” Keith held a hand out to Lance. Lance took the offered hand and hopped in. Keith was right. It was quite warm.

Lance swam right behind Keith, relishing in the feeling of the warm water and admiring the beauty of the forest. 

Keith continuously looked back at Lance and he felt his heart swell every time. He was overwhelmed with extreme happiness from the fact that Lance loved the forest just as much as he did. The luminous plant life reflected in his awe-struck mate’s eyes made his heart feel so incredibly full. 

Keith stopped swimming and held onto Lance’s hand. 

“Can you hold your breath for at least 20 ticks?”

“Yes, why?”

“We need to dive down a bit. There’s a secret place I’m taking you to.” Keith pulled Lance to what looked like the start of a hill, the stream running around it on both sides. 

“Follow me closely.” Keith stated before taking a gulp of air and diving underneath the water. Lance took a deep breath and dove as well. 

Lance saw Keith swimming into a large opening and followed him. The two swam through it, and kicked their way up to the surface of the water. The two emerged, taking a gulp of air. 

Lance looked around the cavern and saw a luminous, purple tree standing on a large patch of rock.  
He and Keith swam towards the rock, which took up most of the cave, and pulled themselves onto it. 

“What is this place?” Lance asked under his breath, staring at the enormous tree. 

“It’s the tree of our ancestors. We come here to ask for advice, to connect more to our people,” Keith gently passed a hand over one of the glowing branches. “To ask for acceptance of a mated pair.” Lance looked at Keith.

Keith held both hands out to Lance, who took hold of them. The two sat down near the trunk, on their knees, in front of each other. Keith gently kissed Lance’s forehead, then said something in Galran. 

Lance watched as Keith closed his eyes and kept on speaking, in a hushed tone. Keith’s ears were twitching slightly, and he put a hand on the trunk. The tree trunk glowed a soft purple and Keith grew quiet. 

Lance hadn’t known that Galra could communicate like this, and watched silently. 

Lance felt Keith grip his hand tighter, and suddenly felt a wave of emotions surging through him. He could here talking, things he could barely understand, but he could feel that they were happy and joyful and accepting. 

The connection faded and the pair looked at each other. 

“You’re crying.” Keith said. 

“You’re crying, too.” Lance laughed gently. The two smiled at each other and put their foreheads together. 

“They’ve accepted us.” Keith breathed out, relieved. He stood up, helping his mate up as well. 

“Come on.” Keith smiled, getting back into the water. 

 

~

 

The two had wandered around or a while longer after finding their clothes and dressing again. They had climbed a tree, and had even ended up falling asleep on it. 

Keith woke up as the sun hit his face. 

“Lance. Get up.” He grumbled, lightly shaking his partner. 

Lance grumpily stirred and sat up, off of Keith’s chest. 

“Good morning.” Lance yawned. 

“Good morning.” Keith replied. He lightly brushed a curl behind Lance’s ear, grinning. Lance kissed Keith’s hand and smiled against it. 

“Hey lovebirds! Your parents are looking for you!” Keith and Lance jerked in surprise and looked down, where Shiro was standing. 

The pair laughed softly, slightly embarrassed, then started their descent down the tree. 

“People have been looking for you all morning. Ulaz almost blew up from the stress.” Shiro kept ranting, but Lance and Keith weren’t really listening. 

The pair was in their own little world, still feeling the extremely deep connection they had formed the night before. 

For them, in that moment, everything felt right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I watched Avatar and got inspired by the forest. I love that movie and it makes me cry every time I watch it. (If you want to know what the forest looks like just look up “avatar forest” and it’ll show up (some stuff is from the Disney Park/a game but you’ll get the idea)
> 
> Hope you guys like the chapter! Sorry it’s so short, I scrapped basically an entire chapter that I was going to post, because it sucked, and replaced it with this


	23. The Wedding Planner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith begin to plan their wedding

The Alteans were still on Keith’s home planet, so Siena, Cyril, and Thace decided to start planning the wedding while everyone was together. 

Lance and Keith were less than thrilled about it, but they didn’t have much choice. 

“Don’t we have time?” Keith asked at breakfast. 

“No, Keith, you don’t. There are many things to consider about this wedding, specially since it’s not just a royal wedding, but also an interspecies wedding.” Thace stated. 

“We have a Galran soldier who has vast knowledge about many different cultures and their traditions, who will be helping decide which wedding traditions will be included, from both of or cultures.” Ulaz informed the group. 

“That’s wonderful.” Cyril said, finishing the last of his breakfast. 

“Well, since it looks like we’re all finished, why don’t we all move to the conference room to start.” Thace said, standing up. 

The rest of the group did the same and followed after Thace and Ulaz, once Ulaz had asked a guard to go get someone. 

“He really is quite knowledgeable, and I believe that he’s been studying Altean wedding ceremonies quite religiously since the engagement was announced.” Thace chuckled. 

“I’m glad someone so passionate will be helping us out,” Siena smiled. “Especially since the boys don’t appear to want to help much.” She muttered. 

“Excuse me, mother, but I’d love to help plan my own wedding. What would be the point if certain details aren’t the way Keith and I like them?” Lance asked, a slightly annoyed undertone present.

“Okay, okay, I understand darling.” Siena laughed at her son’s snippy attitude and continued conversing with Cyril, Thace, and Ulaz. 

When the six of them arrived, two Galrans were waiting outside of the doors to the conference room. 

“Shiro!” Lance beamed and jogged over, giving him a hug. Keith followed suit, of course. 

“How’ve you been, Lance?” Shiro asked. 

“You know, fine. Although Keith is still super emo and it’s kind of annoying sometim-ow!” Lance rubbed the arm that Keith had just elbowed. Shiro chuckled at the pair. 

Thace coughed and Shiro straightened up. He gently touched the shoulder of the other Galran. 

“This is who’ll be helping you guys out.” Shiro said. 

“I’m Adam, it’s very nice to meet you, Your Highnesses.” He bowed to Lance, Siena, and Cyril.

“Please, call me Lance. Any friend of Shiro’s can call me by my name.” The Altean Prince beamed up at Adam. 

“Oh they’re much more than just friends.” Keith mumbled.

“Keith!” Thace snapped at his son. 

“It’s fine, Emperor Thace. It is true, though. Adam and I have been together since we were still in training. We’re official mates now though. Our ceremony was held a couple of deca-phoebes ago.” Shiro slid his hand around Adam’s waist, who was smiling proudly. 

“Well, we’ll definitely be in good hands, then. We look forward to your help, Adam.” Siena said. 

“It’s my pleasure to be of service. Should we go ahead and start? We have a lot of cultural traditions to comb through.” Adam opened the door for everyone to go inside. He kissed Shiro goodbye and slipped inside behind Lance and Keith. 

 

~

 

The group had written down all of the traditions from both cultures and were deciding which ones to choose and which ones to not. 

“The paint is really important to Galran bonding ceremonies, and the planting of the ‘forever’ flower is extremely important in Altean weddings.” Adam said. 

“Keith and I already decided on that actually. He’s going to wear the traditional clothes for bonding ceremonies as well as the paint, and I’m going to wear traditional Altean ceremony clothes. Also, we have a plan for the flower. That’s usually kept private but Keith wanted to mix the exchange of drinks with the planting.” Lance stated. 

“Alright, we’ll write those down then.” Cyril smiled. “We’ll need to let Amelle know to start on your wedding clothes.”

“I’m glad this is running so smoothly.” Ulaz said. “I thought there’d be more tension due to the difference in cultures.”

He spoke to soon. 

Within the next couple of dobashes, Siena was in a screaming match with Thace. 

“My son will not have a knife held up to his neck during the ceremony!”

“It’s an important part of the Galran culture! It shows that your mate trusts you! If they fight back then the ceremony ends! It’s absolutely necessary!” 

The two screamed back and forth, Cyril and Ulaz trying to calm the two down, Adam looking visibly uncomfortable, and Keith and Lance trying to find an opening to get at least one word in. 

“Fath-“

“Not now, Keith!”

“M-“

“No, Lance!”

Keith slammed his fist on the table. Everyone looked at him. 

“It’s. Our. Wedding.” He bit out. 

His ears were flat against his head. He felt an indescribable rage within himself. This was his and Lance’s ceremony. They should be choosing what happens in it, tiny details, who’ll be there, what traditions they’ll follow, but their parents were trying to micromanage it. It wasn’t fair and it wasn’t okay. 

“We appreciate the help, but it’s up to us. We get to decide, you guys shouldn’t be getting in fights, you should be advising us and supporting our decisions.” Lance sighed and gently rubbed Keith’s thigh under the table, a comforting gesture that Keith was grateful for. 

“They’re right, dear.” Cyril told Siena, sitting her back down. 

Thace plopped down after Ulaz gave him a little push towards the chair. 

“Sorry boys,” Ulaz apologized, on behalf of Thace and Siena. “And sorry to you as well, Adam.” Adam nodded slightly. 

“Why don’t we end here today. We made a lot of progress and I think these two need to diffuse a bit.” Cyril helped Siena out of her chair. 

Everyone agreed and decided to meet again at the same time the next day. 

~

“That was an experience.” Lance laughed on the way back to his and Keith’s rooms. 

“It really was, wasn’t it? Who knew your mother could be equally as loud as my father?”

“My mother is terrifying when she wants to be, trust me on that.” Lance shuddered at the memories of getting in major trouble with his mother. 

“Well, I am glad that their letting us choose what we want to do,” Keith squeezed Lance’s hand. “I really want this wedding to be ours.”

“I do too.” Lance smiled softly, giving Keith a quick peck on the cheek, although he had to walk on his tiptoes to do so. 

They hung out in Keith’s room, talking about the wedding, then Adam. Lance was a little mad that Shiro never even mentioned him having a partner, let alone a permanent mate. Keith told him all kinds of stories about Adam and Shiro, which helped Lance forget his annoyance. 

Although the wedding was stressful, Lance was glad it was turning out the way it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ADASHI IS CANON KING  
> (Even though they broke up ;-;)  
>  
> 
> I hope you guys love the chapter! I cried several times when I found out Shiro was LGBTQ. I’m so happy that all the little gay kids can look up to him now! They have a disabled, POC, with physical and mental illnesses, who is a leader to look up to and see that it’s okay to be gay! (PS: I say Adashi because Adam calls Shiro, Takashi. Also Shadam sounds weird noah fence.)


	24. Lance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith sees into Lance’s upbringing

Keith and Lance had been through an absolutely exhausting day of planning. They felt like the stress was going to rip them apart and eat them piece by piece, and they were still three weeks away from the wedding. 

“Want to sleep in my room tonight?” Keith whispered as he carried his fiancé to their rooms. He felt a nod, slow and tired from the day’s arguments and decisions. 

“Alright.” Keith opened his door and walked inside, gently setting Lance on the bed. “Can you take off your boots for me?” The prince whispered softly. 

Lance sluggishly peeled his boots off, followed by the rest of his clothing, except for his under garments, then crawled under the sheets. 

Keith discarded his own clothing and quickly got into bed as well. 

“Goodnight.” Keith kissed Lance’s forehead. 

“Night.” Lance sighed, placing his forehead against Keith’s chest and a hand over the Galran’s heart. 

The two fell asleep quite quickly. 

 

~~~

 

“Lance! Allura! Get back here right this instant!” 

Keith’s eyes shot open. He sat up and saw two children bolting past him, laughing maniacally. 

“What the-“ Keith stood up and watched as a red haired Altean bolted past. Keith followed out of curiosity. 

“King Alfor and Queen Siena put me in charge of you two, please behave!” The red head panted. 

“You know, Coran, one day I’m going to be king of Altea, then you won’t be able to tell me what to do.” A smug looking, young, tan boy said as he hopped up on a rock. 

“Yeah Coran!” A small girl stuck out her tongue. 

Keith stood in awe at the sight before him. A younger Coran and a much younger Lance and Allura were right in front of him. 

“I’ve never heard of a king who didn’t have his markings yet.” The younger Coran scoffed, looking up at the little prince. 

“They’ll come in eventually!” Lance puffed. 

“Lance is going to be the best king ever!” Little Allura beamed. 

“Yeah! All of Altea’s enemies should watch out. I’m going to be the best fighter ever!” Little Lance broke a branch off a bush and jumped down off of the rock, stumbling on his landing. 

“Very inspiring, little prince.” The younger Coran smirked and helped him up. 

Lance swung his “sword” and turned. 

“Come on Allura!” He said, marching off. 

Keith followed the small group. 

“Once I’m king, nobody will tell me do things,” Lance said. 

“Or to stop playing, we could run all over!” Allura chimed in. Lance swung his arms, beaming. 

“I’ll be free to do things my way! No nagging from you Coran!” Lance laughed. 

Keith watched as Lance climbed up the waterfall they had gone to before. 

“Lance, be careful!” Coran called, watching with Allura from below. “Why not come down from there? We could get some snacks?”

Lance ignored the younger Coran completely. 

“That child is getting out of hand.” Keith heard Coran sigh. 

“Alteans everywhere will look and see me standing there, in the spotlight.” Little Lance declared from on top of the waterfall.

“Not yet!” Coran snapped. “You have quite a long way to go.” 

“I can’t wait to be king Coran!” Lance smirked at the two below him. 

“Lance, you’re going to be the finest king Altea has ever seen!” Allura squealed. 

“Right?”

“Okay, Lance, why don’t you come down now. You and Allura need to sit down for tea with your parents soon.” Coran said. 

“Ugh, fine.” The little Lance climbed down the side of the waterfall carefully. 

Keith watched as the younger versions of Coran, Allura, and Lance wandered off, back through the reeds. 

The Galran was still wildly confused about the situation, but before he could analyze any further, he was blinking his eyes open to a new environment. 

A slightly older Lance, around 13 deca-pheebs old or so, was standing in front of the mirror in his room. Keith watched as the Altean stared in the mirror at his arm. 

Lance was wearing a similar top to the one he wore as a child: a fitted blue and white shirt that had sleeves which cut off before the shoulder dropped. 

Lance stared at a blue mark that had begun to peek out past the tank top. 

Keith narrowed his eyes, getting wildly startled when he heard the door slide open. 

“Lance! What are you doing?” Keith saw Queen Siena rushing forward towards her son. 

“My child, you’ve begun to show your markings!” She exclaimed. “I’ll call for Meala at once the make new clothing for you.” 

“What about my old clothes, Mother? I like these clothes.” Lance looked confused. 

“You can’t walk around with your markings showing, Lance. Only the prostitutes in the brothels do that. You’re royalty, you can’t advertise your body in that way. It’s disgusting.” Lance widened his eyes at his mother’s harsh words. 

“You aren’t to leave until we find you some suitable clothing.” Siena stated. 

“But, Mother, Hunk and Pidge are visiting tomorrow.”

“I’m calling it off then. You are not to show off your markings to anybody, unless you are married to them. Do you understand, Lance?”

“Yes, Mother.” Lance mumbled, looking at the ground with a pained expression in his eyes. 

“Oh, Lance,” Siena sighed. “I’m sorry about your friends, but you have to understand that you have to hold yourself to a higher standard. Don’t you?”

“Yes, Mother. I understand.” 

“Good.” 

Keith watched in disbelief as Siena walked out on her obviously distraught son. 

Keith was once again blinking open his eyes to a party atmosphere. He swung his head around as he watched countless people from all different species walking around. 

Suddenly, laughter erupted. The Galran looked and saw an older Lance surrounded by quite a few people, of different races and different genders. All of them, however were absolutely swooning over Lance. 

Keith was bristling slightly out of jealousy, he did not like so many people fawning over his mate. 

“Lance!” Keith heard someone say. He saw Siena walking over and, coincidentally, all of the people around Lance leave. 

“Yes?” He smiled. 

“You need to be careful flirting with anyone and everything you cross paths with. You can get Altea in trouble if you aren’t careful.” 

“Relax, mom. It’s not like I’m going around flashing my markings to random people. I’m being careful with what I say and do.” Lance rolled his eyes. 

“Just,” Siena groaned. “Just be careful, my love. There are quite a few people who would do anything to ruin the Altean royal family.” 

“I know, mom.” Lance got up and walked away, visibly upset. 

Keith watched Siena. She sighed and Cyril walked over. 

“He’ll be fine, dear.” Cyril reassured his wife. 

“I’m sure he will, I just wish we could get someone to supervise him. I don’t know how far he’ll go.”

“Well, we can think about that later. Emperor Thace just arrived. Shall we welcome him?” Cyril smiled as his wife nodded, the two walked off. 

 

~~~

 

Keith sat up. He ruffled his own hair and stared around the room. His room. He saw Lance laying beside him and smiled softly. 

Lance sat up suddenly, eyes wide and filled to the brim with tears. He looked at Keith and hugged him tightly. 

Keith ran his hand up and down the Altean’s back and shushed him until he calmed down. 

“Do you want to talk about it in the morning?” Keith whispered comfortingly. Lance nodded. 

The two laid down, hugging each other tightly. 

Keith was still tremendously confused about the dream he had had. It was clearly small parts of Lance’s life, but how he saw them was an utter mystery. He just hoped whatever Lance saw wasn’t bothering him once they went back to sleep. 

Keith brushed everything off and resolved to figure it out in the morning. He needed as much rest as he could for the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeeey everyone, sorry I’ve been gone for two weeks! I got my wisdom teeth out two days ago. Like all four of my wisdom teeth. So I haven’t been up to writing? Anyways, I decided to do Lance’s childhood chapter first because it’s cute and Keith’s is going to be hella angsty so here’s the calm before the storm. Love you guys!!
> 
> (PS: Siena is a total bitch in this chapter I’m sorry, I promise she isnt that bitchy I’m the present timeline)


	25. Keith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance sees Keith’s past

Lance had felt Keith sink into bed next to him. He felt at peace. He felt happy. He felt like the luckiest person in the universe, to be able have such an amazing fiancé who took care of him. 

He hoped Keith knew how loved he was. 

 

~~~

 

Lance’s eyes fluttered open and he instantly saw a Galran woman laughing and playing with a little boy. 

“Mama! Mama! Let’s play swords again! I got us some already.” A small child held out a large stick towards his mother, waiting for her to take it. 

“Aren’t you tired of swords, Keith?” The woman laughed. 

Lance squinted and took a few steps forward, getting closer to the pair. 

“Daddy won’t play with me anymore. He’s to busy working with Ulaz.” The child version of Keith pouted. 

Lance saw the woman roll her eyes as he caught a glimpse of the child Keith. 

“Well, Daddy and Ulaz are very busy running the kingdom.” The small Keith nodded slowly in acknowledgement. “Now get ready for my attack!” The woman charged at Keith and the two mock-fought with the sticks. 

Lance was trying to figure out what was going on before he was whipped to a new scene. 

The Altean prince saw a slightly older Keith, maybe seven deca-pheebs or so. 

“Dad, how is mom?” He asked, weakly and barely above a whisper. 

“Keith...” a younger looking Thace looked at his son sadly. “She didn’t-she’s...” he paused, holding back tears. “She didn’t survive.”

The younger Keith sobbed, tears starting to gush out of his eyes. Thace places a gentle hand on the boy’s shoulder. Keith jerked away. 

“It’s your fault she’s gone!” He screamed, tears streaming down his face. “You weren’t around her enough to know the signs! You left me and her alone to be with Ulaz!” 

Lance watched in shock and horror as the child was slapped across the face. 

“I loved your mother! She was my best friend and I never wanted this for her! None of it! Not for her to have my child, not for her to be the queen, not for her to be in this hopeless marriage! She agreed because she knew it would help me! Don’t you DARE say that this is my fault!” Thace yelled. The younger Keith ran away, Lance unconsciously following him. 

Lance heard Thace yelling behind him, but didn’t stop. He saw he young Keith crying uncontrollably in a corner, wiping his snot and tears all over the sleeves of his nice clothing. 

Lance wanted so desperately to hug the weeping child, but soon a Galran soldier gingerly walked up. 

“P-prince Keith,” he said softly. “Are you alright?” The soldier crouched down about a foot away from Keith. 

“My mother died from the disease.” He choked out. 

The soldier gently touched the younger Keith’s arm. 

“Both of my parents died from the disease as well. Just a few quintents ago.” The soldier said. “I understand how you feel.”

The young prince looked up with a tear-stained face and threw himself at the soldier. 

“I’m sorry.” He cried. 

Lance saw Keith grasping onto the soldier, like he was the only thing keeping him tethered to the ground. The soldier slowly hugged him back. Lance was holding back tears as he walked around the pair to see who the soldier was. 

A white tuft of hair, but no scar. This was a teenage Shiro, probably just a cadet at the time. 

Lance felt a stab in his chest and a prickle in his eyes as he saw the young Shiro curl his face towards Keith’s shoulder and begin to sob as well. 

The pair stayed hugging each other tightly for a while, finally separating after they had calmed down. 

“What’s your name mister?” The young Keith hiccuped. 

“Takashi, but most people call me Shiro.”

“Shiro?”

“Yeah, it means white in an alien language.” He pointed at the white part of his hair. 

“Shiro, will you be my brother?” Keith whispered. He received a tired chuckle and a nod. 

Lance stared at the two for a few more seconds before getting spun around, a teenage Keith now in front of him. 

He flinched as water went flying onto Keith. 

The prince cringed and started shivering violently as another bucket was thrown at him. 

“Cool off!” A scary-looking woman yelled at Keith. 

“Your father asked me to toughen you up. You hang around Captain Shiro far too much. You must be able to be apart from him, especially since your heats should be coming up soon.” The female Galra instructed. “Do you understand?” She glared at the prince. 

Keith nodded, obviously terrified. 

“Good. Shiro has his own military responsibilities as well as responsibilities to his mate. He cannot have you hanging off of his shoulder at every second.”

The woman continued to ramble on about various things, all the while Lance watched a shivering, saddened, teenage Keith trying desperately not to fall apart at the seams. He looked so vulnerable. 

The scene blurred and Lance’s eyes refocused on Keith walking down a hallway, leaving a trail of water droplets in his path. 

“Hey, Keith!” Shiro came up and smiled. Keith visibly flinched and backed away. 

Shiro raised and eyebrow before realizing what had happened. 

“Did King Thace try to get you ‘cleansed’” Shiro looked like he was about to be sick and hugged Keith tightly. 

“Keith do not listen to what they told you. Whatever it was. Don’t let them get to your head. This is a tactic they use on cadets to make them not show any emotion. Don’t give in.” 

“They said I’m a burden to you Shiro. That I can’t be around you. That when my heat comes you will leave me because I will be tainted and you won’t want to care for me anymore.” Keith trailed off, blankly repeating the words that Lance had heard in the room where the woman was. 

“Oh, Keith. You’re my brother, right? I love you so much and you’ll never be a burden to me.” Shiro squeezes a blank-faces Keith and let go. “Go get some sleep. Come on, I’ll walk you to your room.” 

Lance watched the pair walk off. 

The world around him dissolved to black and he felt himself start to breath heavily. 

He shot up in bed, feeling his heart beating rapidly and his eyes begin to sting with the incoming tears he knew would fall soon. 

“What’s wrong, Lance?” Keith sat up and rubbed his eyes. 

The tears started to pour out like a waterfall. Lance hugged Keith as tight as he possibly could. Repeating apology after apology between his sobs. Keith got Lance to explain after he calmed down. 

The two then told each other of their dreams. 

They cried together about Keith’s past. How his mom died of a massive outbreak of a deadly disease, how his father was barely there during his childhood, how Shiro got him through everything, how he later learned that his mother, Krolia, only married Thace to help him ascend to the throne, how they had Keith out of necessity and not out of love, and so much more. 

They laughed and got angry about Lance’s past. How his mother treated him when he started to physically mature, his and Allura’s friendship, Coran’s younger self, how Lance had acted out all those time and in various ways. 

By the end of it all, it was morning and they were exhausted. They decided to not worry about the morning’s activities and fall back asleep. 

This sleep was peaceful. There were no dreams. There were no memories. There was no crying. There was no laughter. It was just a calm, silent sleep that the two desperately needed. 

And it was perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyyyyyyyy. So basically I’ve been deceased for a month because I   
> 1) started school  
> 2) got hellllllaaaaaa busy  
> 3) haven’t had inspiration/been too tired to write when I actually got the chance to. 
> 
> But anyways: I got my permit, my classes are pretty good, and I FINALLY wrote another chapter. The one all of you guys are waiting for. Hope you like it!


	26. The Wedding: Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 1 of the wedding chapters

“Lance! Come try on your suit!” Cyril called

“Keith, come look at the seat arrangements!” Thace dragged his son away. 

“Lance, can you decide which flower arrangement you’d like for the ceremony?” Siena held out several photographs in front of her son. 

The two families and a handful of Galran servants and soldiers had migrated back to Altea. It was three days before Lance and Keith’s wedding and they were swamped with work. They thought that weddings were supposed to be the most special day of their life, so how was it this stressful?

On top of the stress the two were forbidden from seeing each other until the ceremony. 

It just so happened that both Altean culture and Galran culture had a custom saying that the couple-to-be mustn’t see each other for a period of time before their union ceremony. There was a bit of argument over how long but, eventually, both families came to the conclusion of three days. 

If it was up to Lance and Keith, they wouldn’t be separated at all, but their parents insisted it was bad luck and threw all kinds of excuses and superstitions at them until they (reluctantly) agreed.

However, even if the fiancés COULD see each other, they’d probably be far too busy to. Every second of their days was jam-packed with last minute decisions, approvals, and fittings.

Lance sighed as his extremely long cape was adjusted by the Altean seamstress creating it. 

“Oh, sweetheart,” Siena gasped. “You look beautiful.” She teared up as Cyril hugged her from behind. Lance blushed. 

“Looks like everything is perfect now, Your Highnesses.” The young seamstress beamed.

Lance looked for a mirror.

“Oh, you aren’t allowed to see your wedding outfit until the day of. Sorry, love.” Siena said apologetically. 

“Wha-?” Lance was baffled. There was so many sudden rules and regulations brought up every day. Whatever. It was just his outfit. 

“I’m hungry, can we please get some food now? I haven’t eaten anything today.”

“Of course, of course. Get dressed into your day clothes again. Tenna you’ve done a wonderful job.” Cyril praised the seamstress. 

Lance thanked her as well and went behind a large screen to get dressed into his everyday clothing again. He delicately hung up the clothes and emerged after finishing his task. He handed it to the seamstress and him and his parents set off toward the kitchens. 

On their way there, Lance was thrown into darkness momentarily. His mother having shoved her hands over his eyes.

“Sorry Lance, Keith walked by and you know the rules.” She apologized.

Lance stayed silent. 

He was getting increasingly frustrated with all of these “rules” that the three adults had sprung on him and Keith. 

The rest of the walk was uneventful and when they finally got to the kitchens, Lance was faced with more decisions. 

“Prince Lance, we have some food for you to test out. Prince Keith has already given a reply but I wanted to ask you as well.” A young Galran girl set around five plates of various foods on a counter in front of Lance. 

Lance rubbed his temples and sighed. He took a small bite of each, contemplating for a minute or two.

“I like the dish with the meat in the broth.” Lance pointed to it with his fork. 

“That’s what Prince Keith said too. Thank you!” She began to take all five plates away, but Lance asked to finish the one he liked. 

Once she left the questioning started. 

Why hadn’t he picked the fruit dish? Why hadn’t he picked the fish? Why didn’t he ask to try the sides that’d be going with it? Why didn’t he ask to add anything? 

His parents berated him with question after question. Lance was getting increasingly frustrated, as this had been happening since the decisions had begun. 

Question after question hit him like bullets and finally Lance snapped. 

“Stop it! I’m tired of this,” he stood up and turned towards them. “It’s MY WEDDING! I make the final decisions! Stop questioning everything I do, I’m sick of it!” The prince threw down his fork and ran.

Lance ran until he couldn’t hear his parents anymore and his legs got tired. 

He slumped to the ground in front of some flower bushes and caught his breath, trying to fight back the tears that were stinging his eyes. 

He sighed, at the same time hearing another person do the same. 

“Keith?” Lance whispered. 

“Lance?” Keith choked out. 

Lance peaked around the row of bushes and saw his fiancé. He smiled and crawled over, sitting between his legs and resting his head on Keith’s chest, looking at the sun dip below the horizon. 

“Did you run away too?”

“No, I snuck away while my dad went to go ‘talk’ to Ulaz.” Keith shook his head. 

“In a couple days all the stress will be gone and we’ll be sent off to some secluded space for a week to be alone together.” Lance said. 

“Thank god. I don’t know how much longer I can go without you.”

“What’s that mean exactly?” Lance hummed, turning around. 

“I-I mean that we never did anything really after that first time. I mean we’ve kissed and stuff but we haven’t really...y’know gone all the way?” Keith blushed furiously. 

Lance smirked and straddled his fiancé. 

“Who ever said we had to wait?” He kissed Keith lightly on the cheek and stood up. 

“Come on.” Lance motioned for Keith to follow him and he started walking away. Keith got up and started walking. 

Lance snuck through the castle for a little bit until he found exactly where he wanted to go. He grabbed Keith’s hand and made his way down a long rock tunnel. 

Lance quickly took off his clothes and submerged himself in the natural hot spring. Keith followed suit and swam over to him. 

“Why here?” Keith asked between kisses. 

“Nobody comes here except me.” Lance moaned as Keith but his neck. “Also, this is the place we first saw each other naked so it felt fitting.” Keith laughed as he lifted Lance out of the water and onto the edge of the black stone that surrounded the pool. 

Keith slowly kissed up Lance’s thighs, sucking little marks here and there, until getting to the Altean’s hard dick. 

“Keith...” Lance squeaked as he was suddenly wrapped in the warmth of Keith’s mouth. Lance bit his wrist and tilted his head back. 

Keith sucked his fiancé off for a while, stopping before Lance could finish. The Galra quickly pulled Lance back into the heated water and began to kiss him again, making his way to a ledge under the water. 

Lance began to deepen the kiss and felt a large hand move towards his ass, rubbing around his entrance. He pulled away and sucked in some air before going back in for more. 

Keith took this as a sign to proceed and plunged a finger in, earning a grunt from the other prince. After a while he added another, then another. Slowly and gently preparing his lover. 

“Keith, hurry up.” Lance breathed, his eyes clouded with lust and his marking beginning to glow brightly. Keith didn’t need anything else to convince him. 

With a quick buck of his hips, Keith plunged into Lance, who half-moaned and half-screamed. The prince bit his lip and rested his head against the other’s shoulder. 

The Galran waited until he got the OK from Lance to continue. He didn’t want to push him too hard. 

Once the sign was given, Keith slid out and back in quickly. Lance moaned. Keith kept pumping his hips and Lance moved his in unison. 

Through the whole time, Lance was whispering several curse words under his breath, speaking short phrases in Altean, and uttering noises that drove Keith insane with the need for more. 

Keith pushed himself and Lance up out of the water and onto the rock surrounding the pool. He laid Lance down, pushing up his legs and driving into him ruthlessly, hitting the right spot with every stroke. 

Keith noticed Lance panting, his eyes shut tightly. He could feel Lance’s nails scratching down his back and he winced in pain. The marking that curled around Lance’s body were shining brightly. 

Keith looked in awe and saw Lance writhing on the ground. His back arched, blood starting to drip from where he was biting his lips, and his legs and arms gripping Keith tightly. 

Keith came just before Lance did. 

The two panted as their bodies gave out. Keith slid out of Lance and rolled next to him. 

“I forgot how good that felt.” Lance said, trying to suck in as much air as possible. 

“Me too.” Keith chuckled. 

The after-glow didn’t last long, however. Keith shot up to a sitting position, his ears twitching. 

“What’s wrong?” Lance asked, slowly propping himself up on his elbows. 

“They’re looking for us.”

“Shiiiiiiiiittttttt shiiit shit.” Lance frantically looked around for his and Keith’s clothes. 

He slowly got up and grabbed them, realizing a huge problem. 

“Quiznack, Keith were wet.” He just about fainted. 

Keith looked at his body. His body that had fur all over it. His body that didn’t dry for a long time unless he had a highly absorbent cloth to dry it with. 

Oh nononononono.” Keith stared at his clothes. At least they were his casual clothing and not his uniform. 

He had to make a decision. He could get dressed and be wet or he could stay here and possibly get caught. 

“Give me my clothes, you stay in the hot spring. I’ll sneak you a towel.” Keith grabbed his clothes and stuffed his body in them, or at least his pants. Cloth in wet fur did not slip on very well. 

“I love you, Lance. See you in a couple days,” Keith kissed his fiancé. “Or as soon as we can sneak away again.” Lance smiled and returned the kiss.

Keith ran out of the tunnel, making his way to the room he was moved to. The same room he had stayed while the suitors were here. 

However, before he could open the door, Ulaz was calling his name. 

“Keith, we’ve been so worried! Where have you-“ Ulaz narrowed his eyes at Keith. Sopping wet Keith whose back was scratched up. “Been?”

“Uhhh, training?” Keith turned to face Ulaz quickly. 

“Mmhmm...and did a droid slice up your back like that?” The older Galran cocked and eyebrow and crossed his arms. Keith scratched his neck and laughed nervously. Ulaz sighed and shook his head. 

“Please don’t tell my father.” Keith pleaded. 

“I won’t. This time.” Ulaz promised. 

“Thank you, Ulaz,” Keith smiled.

“Do you need help with the scratches? I’ve experience in patching up those kinds of wounds.” Ulaz asked. Keith’s face scrunched up in disgust before Ulaz‘s face lit up and he started making excuses about where his “experience” has come from.

“As long as you stop vaguely implying the sex injuries you’ve given my dad, then yeah, I’d like some help please.” Keith said, still disgusted. Ulaz slapped Keith’s arm, still red in the face. 

The two sat down and Ulaz disinfected and bandaged the scratches. They talked about the wedding stress and Keith ultimately felt a little better. Ulaz was always someone Keith considered family, even if he wasn’t basically his father’s husband, Keith thought they’d still be fairly close. Keith liked talking with Ulaz, he always had a way to ease Keith’s stress. 

“Thank you Ulaz, for patching me up. And not telling anyone about where I was.”

“Of course, Keith. Although, it’d be in your best interests to either stay away from Lance for the next couple days or become better at sneaking around.” Ulaz winked and Keith turned to leave. 

“Keith.” Ulaz called. Keith turned and was met with a towel in his face. 

“Thanks, Ulaz.” He chuckled, walking into his room to dry off and get dressed. 

He laid on his bed and thought about his time with Lance. He didn’t know if he could wait two days to officially be Lance’s partner forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys! These are the final chapters of the story so I hope you enjoy them. There will be three/four parts to the wedding and one chapter that takes place in the future. I’m kind of running out of ideas for this story and I have a lot of ideas for other series so please look forward to those! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter and I love you all <3


	27. The Wedding: Ceremony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ceremony. Both parts of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith’s wedding clothes: https://www.deviantart.com/karijn-s-basement/art/Custom-Fashion-50-548588728
> 
> Lance: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/591871576006056804/  
> Sorry it’s blurry :/

Keith was breathing deeply, his eyes were closed and he was shaking. 

Sacred Galran painters were spreading a black substance all over his legs, chest, back, and arms in intricate details. They whispered prayers constantly as they moved their fingers over the prince’s body. This ritual was the last thing Keith had to go through before he could marry his life partner. 

The painters said one last prayer over the bowl of black that they were using and left it in the room. 

“Keith...” the prince opened his eyes to see his father covering his mouth. The emperor walked towards his son, looking at him with pride and love. 

He dipped his thumbs in the paint and gently brushed it under his son’s eyes, up his temples, across his forehead, and down his nose, passed his lips. 

“You look so much like your mother.” 

“I wish she was here with us.” Keith played with the edge of the floor-length cloth he had wrapped around his waist. 

“She is.” Thace took a small wooden box out of his pocket. “She wanted you to have this.”

Thace pulled a necklace with a red gem dangling at the end of it out of the box. He clipped it around Keith’s neck for him as the two looked into a mirror. 

Keith touched it gingerly, hands shaking more than ever. He could feel a strong presence, and knew his mother was with him. 

“It was hers when she was young.”

Keith smiled, tears eyed, as his father placed a crown, woven with traditional wedding flowers, on top of his head. Thace slicked his son’s hair behind the crown and patted his shoulder. 

“Let’s get you to that ceremony.”

 

~

 

Lance was trying to desperately calm himself down as he waited behind two massive double doors. 

Two Altean servants were adjusting his long cape so that it would follow him effortlessly down the aisle. 

His father was beside him. 

“Lance, are you alright?”

“I’m just nervous, is all. It’s not like I’m getting married or anything.” Lance chuckled, but it faded quickly and was replaced with fear. 

“Everything will be okay, son. I was just as nervous as you are when I was getting married and Keith is probably the same.” Cyril hugged his son and kissed his forehead gently. 

Lance took a deep breath and looked at the doors. He smiled at his father and the king nodded at the two guards. The doors opened and Lance frantically looked around before being guided forward by his father. 

The hundreds of people gathered in the hall, already standing, stared at the Altean prince. 

He did not notice though. 

Lance didn’t notice the stares, the music, the tug of his cape on his shoulders, the beautiful flowers, the large glass windows surrounding them that cast late afternoon sun onto all of them. 

All Lance could see was Keith. He could only think about walking towards him, and that’s exactly what he did. 

The two kept their eyes locked until they stood right in front of each other. Both were tearing up as they held hands tightly. 

The Altean officiant proceeded with the Altean ceremony. The two vowed themselves to each other. They drank blessed nunvil, and the ceremony was complete. 

 

Then the Galran priest replaced him, tying one of Lance’s and one of Keith’s hands together. He presented them both with knives and the two cut the side of the cloth that was closest to the other’s wrist. 

“These two shall be bonded for life.” The Galran called out. 

“They will have an unfaltering love, blessed by the Ancients to lead successful lives and empires.” The Altean boomed. 

Everyone cheered as the ceremonies came to an end and the couple walked back down the aisle, and out of the hall. 

Lance unclipped his cape and the two ran outside of the castle. 

 

~

 

They collapsed as soon as the hit the edge of the forest, hugging each other tightly and kissing. 

“I love you, my husband.” Lance whispered against Keith’s lips. 

“And I You, my beautiful mate.”

They bumped foreheads, just living in the moment. The happy and beautiful moment. They were bonded for life. For eternity. And they could not ask for anything less. 

“I can’t believe how far we’ve come. I hated you at first.” Keith mentioned, sitting up. 

“Wha- I knew I should have sliced you during the ceremony.” Lance poked Keith’s ribs and stood up. 

“You little jerk.” Keith squishes Lance’s face. 

“I’m your little jerk now.” Lance said, a smug grin on his face. 

“Indeed, now let’s get to our next destination.” Keith kissed his husband’s squished lips and took his hand, leading him into the forest. 

They walked through the calm forest, venturing quite deep. Within a few minutes they arrived at a cave, which they entered. 

“Come on.” Keith breathed as they approached a pool filled with glowing flowers. 

This second Galran ceremony was vital to the couple’s relationship. This would bond them in the eyes of the ancients, who ruled and protected the entire universe . 

The two removed their clothing and stepped into the shallow pool of water. It came up to Keith’s hips and Lance’s stomach. They closed their eyes and held each other’s hands. Putting their foreheads together once again. 

“Just feel our soul’s bond. Listen to it and feel what I feel.” Keith spoke, barely audible. 

The two ventured deep within themselves and began to feel the other’s emotions. A sudden wave of emotions. Happy, fearful, thankful, amazed, love, kindness, hope. Everything. 

The two ventured into a deeper part of the pool and went under the water. They shared a kiss and opened their eyes. 

Brilliant, glowing, red and blue flower petals surrounded them. They felt truly bonded. Not just legally, but in a deep spiritual level that they would never be able to put into words. 

Lance and Keith came up from the water and left the pool. They covered themselves in some blankets that had been set up in a divot in the cave’s floor. 

They slept peacefully, dreaming of what was and what would come. 

They were finally one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha....hi. This fan fiction is coming to a close and I’ll be moving on to my shance fanfic. I really ran out of steam for this fanfic but I’ll try to make this one and the last one quality chapters. The next one will be an “afterwards” chapter :)


	28. Fifteen Years Later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 15 years after the wedding

“Daddy! Papa!” A small child screamed as she ran towards her two fathers. 

“Hello Love, we missed you soooo much!” Lance picked his daughter up and she hugged him and her other father. 

“Were you nice for your auntie Allura?” Keith asked. 

“I was I was! Colivat and I played tons and uncle Lotor played with us too!” The little Altean girl beamed brightly. 

“That’s wonderful, darling.” Keith nuzzled his daughter’s dark brown hair and Lance set her down on the floor. 

The three walked hand-in-hand towards the other family standing in front of the Altean castle. 

“Thank you for watching Krolia for us, Allura, Lotor.” Keith said. 

“Oh, please. She is such a sweet child and she actually gets our son outside.” Allura glanced at Colivat, who was playing with the seam of his clothes. “How was the wedding by the way?” Allura looked at the other couple again. 

“It was amazing. I’m so happy that Ulaz and Thace can finally be together peacefully.” Lance smiled. 

“I didn’t know they would get married so soon after the thrown was turned over to me. It’s only been a phoeb, it’s insane.” Keith chuckled. 

“Well, they’ve waited a long time and know that you and Lance will be ruling your kingdoms peacefully.” Lotor said. 

“Yeah. I’m glad Shiro has stepped up as second in command to the empire since I’m staying on Altea with Lance and Krolia. Our planets are close, but we need to actively be here more.” 

“Sounds tough.” Lotor sympathized. 

“Krolia, the princess to a kingdom and an empire.” Allura joked. 

“Can I be royalty too mommy?” Colivat chimes in. 

“Silly, you’re a prince of Altea and Daibazaal. You are royalty.” Lotor ruffled his son’s hair. 

Colivat’s eyes widened and glimmered. 

“Lia! Lia! I’m a prince!” He jumped around in front of his friend and she jumped around as well. 

The adults chuckled at their children and continued on. 

“Come on little ones, lets go eat lunch.” Lance said, taking both of their hands and leading them into the castle. 

Keith looked lovingly at his daughter and husband. Lance looked like he belonged right in the middle of those two children. 

“Maybe we should look into adopting again.” He mumbled, following the group.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed this fanfiction. I certainly loved writing it. This won’t be my last Klance fan fiction either! 
> 
> I do have a shance fanfic I’m working on, so I hope you check that out (if you like that) 
> 
> Regardless, thank you for everything <3


End file.
